Nicolas Almagro overpowers compatriot Tommy Robredo in 2nd round – Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011
Firing up with the 2nd round match, Nicolas Almagro, Spanish world number eleven, dragged down compatriot, Tommy Robredo, world number 46, in straight sets at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, Shanghai, China. Battling
it out on the blue hard circuit, Tuesday, 11th October, the higher ranked Spaniard outranked his fellow countryman drowning him 7-5, 6-3, in an hour and 21 minutes and into the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011.
Prior to this fixture, Almagro has shown no mercy for the 29-year-old compatriot beating him in all of the 3 times the two have played head-to-head. Adding to his advantage, the higher ranked Spaniard has been up on hard courts
for half of his 2011 season.
Kicking off with the first set of the match, Almagro opened up the first game rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0. Levelling up next, Robredo fired up his opening serve to win game 2, 1-1. Rallying out wins of respective serves, the
two levelled up at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and then at 5-5 with the higher ranked Spaniard to serve next.
Almagro pulled off a win of game 11, and broke the world No.46 in game 12 with a super drop shot winner winning the set, 7-5, and moved on to set 2.
Flaring up the second set, world No.11 continued to serve first, and rocked out game 1, 1-0. Robredo pulled off with a winner in game 2, 1-1, however, could not capitalize with a breakpoint. Winning triple game point in game 3,
Almagro led, however, Robredo stayed right on the tail of the 26-year-old.
Levelling up at 2-2 and then at 3-3 Almagro struck again before the 29-year-old could strike back. Serving out game 7, the 26-year-old broke the lower ranked compatriot, 5-3, and stood to serve for the match.
With just one more game left to enter the 3rd round of the event, Almagro bewildered a triple game point winning the set 6-3, and the match in straight sets to walk into the next stage of the ATP Masters 1000 event.
Almagro now moves on ahead to play former world number one, Andy Roddick in the third round of the event. Roddick moved into the 3rd round after doing away with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in straight, yet not so simple,
sets securing a 7-6(3), 7-5 win.
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