Mirnyi/Nestor oust Bracciali/Starace for final berth – Roland Garros 2012
Defending champions, Belarus’ Max Mirnyi and Canada’s Daniel Nestor, stomped over the 14th seeded Italians, Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace, in straight sets at the French Open 2012 on Thursday. They formulated a 6-3, 6-4 victory against
the Italians to power into the final showdown of this second of the four Grand Slam event once again.
The top seeded junction stayed on the right path to defend their title after tumbling over their Italian rivals in their second encounter. Both teams met each other at the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this circuit and after pocketing this match,
Mirnyi and Nestor improved to a 2-0 lifetime in the head-to-head series against the their lower ranked opponents.
The ultra-fit Belarusian-Canadian duo thundered into the Court Suzanne Lenglen and drew the first blood in the second game to jump to a 3-0 lead before their opponents could hold on. They capitalised on another break chance in the sixth game jumped to a
5-1 lead. Despite squandering their chances of pulling out the set with a breadstick, Mirnyi and Nestor held their serve once again and clicked the opener with a 6-3 win.
Mirnyi and Nestor kept momentum running towards the follow-up set earned the coveted break in the third game to leap to a 3-1 lead. They held their entire serves without facing any breakpoint and sealed the set by winning six games to four.
All in all, the highest ranked team of the tournament showed tremendous skills in this battle. They clobbered a lower first serve share of 55 per cent as compared to their rivals’ 63 per cent but tremendously marked 25 out of 33 points on it. They also fired
seven aces and finished the deal with 69 points.
The winning collaboration of Mirnyi and Nestor conquered their first major trophy at the Roland Garros last year when the trashed Juan Sebastian Cabal and Eduardo Schwank in the title-round. They are currently in their prime form and have already shelved
two titles. The Belarusian-Canadian pair clinched the title at the Brisbane International (dumped Jurgen Melzer and Philip Petzschner) and the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis (overpowered Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo). They also made final showings
at the Sony Ericsson Open (fell to Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek) and the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (lost to Bryan Brothers).
Next in line for Mirnyi and Nestor are the second seeded American brothers, Bob and Mike Bryan. The American twins halted 10th seeds, Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Netherland’s Jean-Julien Rojer, in straight sets to set up this clash.
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