Nicolas Almagro head butts Florian Mayer for a spot in the semis – German Tennis Championships 2011
So far the best match of the Hamburg Open 2011 quarter-finals was played between the Spaniard Nicolas “Nico” Almagro and the home player Florian “Flo” Mayer. The match is well explained by the expression OH MY GOD! Playing at the
Rothenbaum Tennis Court the two stars dismantled each other completely, however the winner still had his hands bolted together to be raised up on victory.
Playing for the 5th time against each other, the dominator in this rivalry was the world No.14 Nicolas Almagro. Out of the five, the Spaniard has punched the German four times. Almagro had his highest career ratings
earlier this year when he became the 9th best tennis player of the world. However, he did fall down 5 places after that but still proved in the quarter finals that where he stood earlier was something he deserved.
Florian Mayer, the world No.20, has certainly been lucky in the Hamburg Open as he defeated Juan Monaco and Marsel Ilhan in straight sets of the first two matches he played. Apart from that he has won only 5 matches of the last
10. His luck could not really strike completely against the clay lords this time as he lost another fixture against Nico.
The nail bitter started with the home player serving for the first game of the quarter-final. Taking the lead 1-0, Flo was cut down to level in the next game by the Spaniard 1-1. The scores cruised to 2-2, 3-3 and so on to a tiebreaker
in the first set. With every point won by the homeboy the fans cheered insanely, however the cheering was just for the first ten points. The cheers were soon replaced by “Usted Ganará Almagro” (you will win Almagro) as Nico clinched two straight points to
secure a win in the tiebreaker.
The set ended with the final score 7-6(5) in favour of the Spaniard.
Winning the first, Almagro opened up the second set and the scores 1-0 followed by a win by the German world No.20, 1-1. Almagro served for game 3. Winning the game he then broke the German’s serve and extended his lead to 3-1.
Florian lost another game to the Spaniard to make the scores 1-4. It was if the German was going to lose, which he eventually did, but came back up on his feet as he levelled the scores winning 3 games straight.
The match went on to a sudden death tiebreaker. the tiebreaker started off with Florian serving first. The scores went from 1-1 to 3-1 on Almagro’s serve and it seemed like Florian had finaly saved himself a match but unfortunately
his dream was yet again blown off as the Spaniard delivered scuds in the next 6 serves to win the set and the match 7-6(5), 7-6(3).
Winning a terrific victory, Almagro now sits comfortable to prepare himself semi-final round of the Hamburg Open where he will face compatriot, Fernando Verdasco.
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