Murray/Sa outplay Dlouhy/Melo to clinch title win – Moselle Open 2011
An upset result was witnessed in the doubles final of the Moselle Open, as the second seeded duo of Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Marcelo Melo of Brazil suffered a crushing defeat from the combination of Britain’s Jamie
Murray and Andre Sa of Brazil on Sunday night.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of the Arenes de Metz, in Metz, France, the contest displayed sheer brilliance of Murray and Sa, who wrapped up the championship victory in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(7). The winning duo took
one hour and twenty five minutes to dispose of the second seeded pair in the final showdown, claiming the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour title.
It was a fairly poised contest, with both teams throwing out their best at each other. Dlouhy and Melo were off to a sloppy start in the opener but gained up some pace in the later parts of the game. They played a competitive second
set to impose a tie breaker in the match but the combination of Murray and Sa proved too good for them to handle.
Murray and Sa were brilliant with their serve game, banging 81 per cent of their serve on target and reeling off 44 out of 55 first serve points en route to victory. They crafted eight break opportunities in the matchup and converted
three of them to drive away their second seeded opponents from the competition. Dlouhy and Melo registered just two of their four break points in the matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
The opening set showed complete dominance of the unseeded duo, with some exceptional power hitting from Murray and Sa. They drew the first blood in the fifth game and then held serve to get to a substantial position of 4-2 in the
set. Dlouhy and Melo failed to craft a single break point in the first set and didn’t recover from the early damage done by their opponents to drop the opener at 4-6.
Murray and Sa continued with their aggressive game play in the following set as well, breaking their opponents’ serve in the very first game to lead 2-0. They nailed another break point in the fifth game to lead 4-1 but Dlouhy
and Melo stung two successive serve breaks to make their way back in the game, imposing a tie breaker round at 6-6. Murray and Sa manoeuvred their way through the hard-fought tie breaker round to conclude their championship victory at 7-6(7).
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