Nicolas Almagro ousts Philipp Kohlschreiber in 3rd round – German Tennis Championships 2011
Third seed Nicolas Almagro progressed to the quarterfinals by scoring a decisive win in his third round match against German contender Philipp Kohlschreiber at the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011. Spaniard Almagro sailed through the game swiftly, with only a fleeting hindrance posed by his opponent and the match ended at 6-3, 7-5 in just under one and a half hour.
Out of the 9 top seeds who took the Centre Court at Rothenbaum, Hamburg 8 progressed to the next round unscathed. Only 15th seed Fabio Fognini fell victim to last year’s runner up second seed Jurgen Melzer.
World No. 14 Nicolas Almagro had earlier breezed past lucky loser Lukas Rosol to make headway to the third round of the competition. While his opponent Kohlschreiber had moved ahead when Spaniard Albert Montanes called quits in his second round match against Kohlschreiber. Lady luck however shined for only so long on the German and he was left unsheltered against the oppressive display of skill by Almagro.
The two players, before Thursday’s match maintained an equally matched head to head ranking of 2-2. Almagro has now surged ahead. The two had earlier met way back in 2009 at Vienna, Austria where Kohlschreiber had won their quarter final match.
Almagro played the game’s opening serve and from the beginning maintained a healthy lead. Almagro himself didn’t face a single breakpoint situation in the entire set but created 4 against his opponent, of which Kohlschreiber managed to save three. Kohlschreiber served dismally at 42% and managed to win only 62% of his first serve points. Almagro in contrast cemented his win by garnering an outstanding 15 of the 16 serve points (94%) and shot 6 audacious, superbly placed aces to obliterate his opponent. The match sealed at 6-3 with Almagro winning by a huge margin.
Kohlschreiber, whose serve opened the second set, showed considerably greater resolve and managed to give his opponent a hard time if nothing else. Both the players remained on each other’s tail for a considerable time, serving only to increase the match’s thrill factor. With the scores tied at 3-3, Almagro stunned his opponent by registering a daunting breakpoint and marched ahead. Kohlschreiber fought ferociously and managed to level the set again at 5-5 by registering a surprising serve break. Almagro broke serve in the very next game to break his opponent’s stride and solidified an unbreakable lead. The closely contested set closed at 7-5, with Almagro taking home the match.
Almagro will next face another German, the home favourite sixth seed Florian Mayer in the quarter finals.
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