Mirnyi/Nestor beat Llodra/Zimonjic to claim a SF berth – Barclays World Tour Finals 2011
Another surprising outcome in the Group B was seen, as the third seeded duo of Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada took down the world number two team of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in their
last Round Robin clash of the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis professionals) World Tour Finals on Thursday evening.
The crucial Group B matchup took one hour and nineteen minutes to conclude, with the third ranked duo coming out as the winner in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 10-7, booking a semi-final berth in the circuit grand finale.
Mirnyi and Nestor were pushed onto their back foot early in the game, with Llodra and Zimonjic clinching the opening set in a convincing fashion. Tide turned in the next set when the third seeds came out firing at their opponents,
pocketing the second set to enforce a super tie-breaker round into play. Llodra and Zimonjic competed well in the decider but a couple of missed opportunities at crucial occasions led them down in the end.
Mirnyi and Nestor topped the Group B standings with a 3-0 record, winning all of their Round Robin matches in a comprehensive manner. They first took down the fifth seeded Indo-Pak Express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
and then went on to outplay the eighth seeded Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the second clash. The third ranked duo has improved their season’s winning ration to 45-19, with three ATP doubles championship titles in their bag already.
It was Mirnyi and Nestor’s second consecutive victory over Llodra and Zimonjic, as they outplayed these two in the final of the Swiss Indoors Basel last month. The head-to-head between these two duos is now levelled at 3-3.
Both sides held their serve in the opening six games of the matchup before Nestor suffered the first break points of the day to lead to fall 3-4. Llodra and Zimonjic closed out the first set at 6-4 but their winning momentum was
ravaged by a magnificent comeback from the third seeds, who nailed two successive breaks of serve to pocket the second set at 6-3.
With the contest levelled at 1-1, both pairs threw out everything they had in the decider to come as the winner. Mirnyi and Nestor kept seizing crucial points in the third set and eventually sealed out victory at 10-7 to have a
perfect Round Robin with 3-0 record.
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