Mirnyi/Nestor plonk Ebden/Harrison to reach semis – French Open 2012
Top seeds, Belarus’ Max Mirnyi and Canada’s Daniel Nestor, tumbled over the Australian-American tandem, Matthew Ebden and Ryan Harrison, in straight sets at the French Open 2012 on Monday. They formulated a 6-4, 6-4 victory against their rivals to power into the final four at this second of the four Grand Slam events held in Paris, France.
The ultra-fit Belarusian-Canadian junction dumped their opponents through exceptional co-ordination. After earning this success, the delighted collaboration of Mirnyi and Nestor convincingly booked a spot in the semi-finals at this major clay court tournament.
Mirnyi and Nestor assertively entered the Court number Two and held their opening serve to tie the scores at 1-1. They maintained consistency in their game and after dusting away both breakpoints they came across, the winning duo held their remaining serves. They got the breakthrough in the seventh game after cashing in one out of five break chances and pulled out the opener with a 6-4 score line.
The in-form collaboration of Mirnyi and Nestor kept momentum running towards the proceeding set and earned the critical break in the opening game to take the initial lead. Apart from squandering their edge in the very next game, the Belarusian-Canadian duo capitalised on another break opportunity in the third game and jumped to a 3-1 lead. They held their remaining serves with poise and sealed the set by winning six games to four.
Summing up the performance from the highest ranked team of the tournament, Mirnyi and Nestor produced a lower first serve share of 53 per cent as opposed to their rival’s 65 per cent and magnificently marked 24 out of 30 points on it.
Next in line for Mirnyi and Nestor are the 14th seeded Italians, Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace. The Italians tumbled over the Croatian-Brazilian pair, Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, in straight sets to set up this massive battle.
Dodig and Melo brushed off all three breakpoints they came across to keep their entire serves. They capitalised on three out of 11 break opportunities and manipulated a 6-2, 6-4 score line in almost one and a half hour-long marathon.
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