Nicolas Almagro stomps Potito Starace in the second round battle – Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 2012
World number 12, Nicolas Almagro of Spain, carried on his sublime form of the season at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, defeating the 81st ranked Italian competitor, Potito Starace, on Wednesday. He clobbered a 7-6(3),
6-1, victory over the 30-year-old Italian veteran to book a spot in the third round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Associations) Masters 1000 event.
Almagro delighted the Monacan crowd at Monte Carlo with yet another display of quality tennis, bettering his opponent in every segment of the game. He extended his winning streak against Starace to seven, improving the FedEx Head-to-Head
series by 7-1 in singles encounters. The 26-year-old Spaniard had already defeated Starace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, earlier this season but it was a relatively comprehensive win for him on Wednesday.
Although the eighth seed had a below par serve precision of just 49 per cent in the match, he dropped merely four points on his first serve en route to victory. Almagro clinched 23 out of 27 points on his first serve and converted
both of his break opportunities to drive his opponent out of the star-studded event in Monte Carlo. He further backed up his belligerent game play by stealing 17 out of 47 return points on his opponent’s serve, with the Italian contender struggling to win
points throughout the matchup and eventually finishing on the losing side in the end.
No serve breaks were seen in the opener and the first set was dragged into the tie-breaker round. Starace crumbled in the decider and gifted away the set to the eighth seed opponent to fall 0-1 in the match. Almagro shifted to
his rage mood in the following set and nailed two cracking break points in the second and sixth games to close out the match with a breadstick at 6-1.
Almagro will face the Swiss tennis ace, Stanislas Wawrinka, in the next round to fight for a place in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters. Wawrinka stunned the 10th seed Spanish competitor, Feliciano
Lopez, in the opening round and then went on to defeat the other unseeded Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, to book a date with Almagro.
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