Mirnyi/Nestor work through Gonzalez/Kas to reach the semi-finals – Australian Open 2012
Second seeded pair of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor had to labour a bit harder than expected to overcome the 12th seed Mexican-German combination of Santiago Gonzalez and Christopher Kas in the quarter-final battle at the Australian Open on Wednesday. The second ranked duo strained hard for one hour and 41 minutes of play to settle the final scores at 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-2, to book a berth in the semi-finals of the mega event in Melbourne, Australia.
Apart from the second set of the match, Mirnyi and Nestor asserted sheer dominance over their inferior ranked opponents to win the battle in the end. They rocketed through the opening set with a breadstick in barely 22 minutes of play, threatening a straight sets defeat to their bleak opponents. A fitting reply came from Gonzalez and Kas in the second set, giving some real tough time to the second seeded pair. Mirnyi and Nestor reinstated their authority in the final set of the match to wind up the proceedings in their favour.
The second seeded delivered 71 per cent of its serve on target and secured 45 out of 55 first serve points en route to victory. They converted four out of five break opportunities in the match, while Gonzalez and Kas utterly failed to craft even a single break point in the entire contest to finish on the losing side in the end.
Mirnyi and Nestor were off to a flyer in the opening set and nailed two straight serve breaks in the fourth and sixth games to race away to 6-1. Their winning impetus was halted in the following set with some resilient game play from Gonzalez and Kas. They held their entire serve games to drag the set into a tie-breaker round. The Mexican-German duo got their spots right this time round and took the second set at 7-6(4), only to ignite the rage mode of their second seeded opponents. Mirnyi and Nestor blasted through them in the final set and stung two successive serve breaks to conclude the match up at 6-2.
Mirnyi and Nestor will face off against the Indo-Czech combination of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in the next encounter to fight for a title shot at the Australian Open championship.
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