Nicolas Almagro defeats Sam Querrey in the second round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
World number ten, Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated Sam Querrey of America in the second round clash of the Rome Masters at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy on Wednesday. Querrey played nowhere near his best tennis and easily allowed
the Spaniard to prevail over with a 3-6, 6(4)-7 score. The Spaniard pro ousted his American opponent taking not more than one hour and forty eight minutes of play.
The 25th-ranked American got off to a poor start, losing three games in the entire first set. Querrey’s overall performance was not impressive, but what was impressive was his capability to beat the Spaniard and the
way in which he forced the second set into a tie-break. Throughout the match Almagro looked very confident and stayed right on the baseline to get more and more points. He used his famous forehand up the line effectively, repeatedly killing Querrey with his
defensive shots. Querrey was in trouble during the match and scored 74 of 151 in total to give away the match.
In the first set, Almagro immediately found his way to a 4-1 lead. From there it was business as usual for the Spaniard as he concluded the first set easily with majority of points. He converted 50 percent of breakpoints on return
to close out the match with 6-3 score. After committing two double faults in the final set, Querrey managed to find the momentum but he still lacked the first serve accuracy to outplay Almagro. He scored three aces, 63 percent of first serves and won 65 percent
of points on them. The American continued to play hard and scored some better points in total but his opponent still had the depth and accuracy to create huge troubles for Querrey. The Spaniard could have wrapped the match in straight sets, but Querrey turned
alive and earned his third break of the day to force a tie-break. At 3-4, the American lost both of his service points and gave Almagro a lifeline in the tie-break. A hard-fought contest eventually led to a 7-4 advantage for Almagro, at which point the Spaniard
seized a critical mini-break to the set.
Almagro moves on ahead to face Robin Soderling who rallied from one set down to defeat Fernando Verdasco of Spain 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the tournament. Once again, fans of the Almagro and Soderling will be champing
at the bit as the two meet for the eighth time in their career. The last time they played against each other was in Beijing, China one year ago where Soderling defeated the Spaniard in the second round of the tournament. Soderling has beaten him four of the
seven times they have played. Soderling probably would not be in the semifinals, but he has more chances to win the match for sure.
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