Nicolas Almagro beats Ivo Karlovic in second round – Western & Southern Open 2011
Scorching the 32-year-old Croatian, Ivo Karlovic, in a close encounter, Nicolas Almagro came out as the winner beating his rival 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(2). Surpassing the world No.104, Karlovic, in the 2nd round of the Cincinnati
Open 2011, it took the Spaniard almost 120 minutes to take his 3rd round seat. Playing at the Lindner Family Tennis Centre, Ohio the two gave the fans a sizzling match to their fans ending up with Almagro finally winning.
Acing his previous 7 out of 10 matches, Almagro has certainly found his way back to glory. Although the Spaniard has lost out in crucial stages of several tournaments, the 25-year-old has always made it to the top to battle the
best players. Ranked at world No.11, Almagro is an equal entertainer on the clay circuit as he is on the hard court.
Playing his third match against the Spaniard, Karlovic, world No.104, once again took a beating to drop down to 0-3 in head-to-head score. However, this time, the Croatian gave a tough fight leading the game unpredictable.
Serving for the match opener, Karlovic served first rolling the scorecard 1-0, however, not in his own favour rather gave away the first breakpoint. Almagro took the start and led game 2 as well, 2-0. Winning a lucky game, the
32-year-old finally opened up his side of the score board winning game 3.
The scores steadied off in the next couple of games before Almagro broke the Croatian for the 2nd time in set 2, game 9, taking away the set 6-3 and led the match 1-0. The Spaniard moved on to serve the next set.
Taking the lead, Almagro took out the first set immediately only to be followed by the world No.104 to level it off in the game 2, 1-1. Same as the first set, the two won back-to-back games on their respective serves before Karlovic
attempted to settle the scores and succeeded.
Breaking the Spaniard in game 11 of the set, Karlovic turned the tables to score and lead the set 6-5 and finally led to his win clearing off with the final game on his serve, 7-5. The match now went into the final set.
Leading on to the finisher set, Almagro served to open the set and the scoreboard, 1-0. The phenomenal rebounds and unbreakable defences of both the player led the match into an eventual tiebreak. Winning the tiebreak with mere
difficulty, the world no.11 took over the set 7-6(2) along with the match winning 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(2).
Almagro now sits an uncomfortable seat in the 3rd round as his next match is against the eighth seeded Czech, Tomas Berdych.
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