Mirnyi/Nestor down Stakhovsky/Youzhny in the second round – Rogers Cup 2011
Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada knocked out Ukrainian/Russian team of Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the second round at the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Thursday. The second seeds
took just 56 minutes to dispatch off their opponents.
Mirnyi and Nestor broke the Ukrainian/Russian pair in the fifth game of the opening set and won their next service game to claim a 4-2 lead. The Belarusian/Canadian team capitalised on the break of serve and served out the set
at 5-4.
The second ranked team outclassed their opponents in all departments of the game as they amazingly won 100 percent of the first service points, clinching all fourteen of them and converted seven of the seventeen first returns into
points in the opening set. The Belarusian/Canadian combination claimed six of the eight points on the second serve and converted one of the three break points on the Ukrainian/Russian pair’s serve in the first set.
Mirnyi and Nestor took an early lead in the second set, breaking the Ukrainian/Russian duo in the first game and holding their serve in the next game to take a 2-0 lead. The Belarusian/Canadian pair did not lose their serve throughout
the set and clinched it 6-4.
The left and right hander combination kept on pressurising Stakhovsky and Youzhny with the help of their huge serves, firing two aces and grabbing fourteen of the sixteen first service points. The Belarusian/Canadian pair did not
give their opponents any break point opportunity and capitalised on one of the five break points they received in the second set.
Mirnyi and Nestor are chasing their third title of the season. They defeated Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-2, 6-7(6), 10-3 in the final to win their first title of the year at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. The
Belarusian/Canadian combination dismissed Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia and Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 in the title match at the French Open. They fell a little short in Miami as they were beaten by Indians Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander
Paes in 7-6(5), 2-6, 5-10 in the final at the Sony Ericsson Open. However, Mirnyi and Nestor did not have a good start to the hard court season as they were beaten by Tommy Haas of Germany and Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic 2-6, 7-5, 2-10 in the first round
at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.
The Belarusian/Canadian team will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.
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