Nicolas Almagro stuns Gilles Simon to reach final showdown – Open de Nice Cote D’Azur 2012
Third seed, Nicolas Almagro, crushed the local star, Gilles Simon, with a breadstick at the Open De Nice Cote D’Azur 2012 on Friday. He jolted down a 6-1, 6-3 success against the world number 12 to power into the title-round at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event held in Nice, France.
The ultra-fit Spaniard displayed brilliant skills to oust Simon in 68 minutes. Encountering each other for the fourth time, Almagro not only avenged his loss at the Hamburg ATP event last circuit but also levelled the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 2-2 against the French.
Almagro went out of control in the opening set at the Nice Lawn Tennis Club. After Simon held his serve in the opening game, the Spaniard blasted powerful groundstrokes to reel off the following six games in a row. He brushed off both breakpoints he came across and capitalised on three out of five break chances to pocket the breadstick.
Ranked 14th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Almagro kept momentum floating into the second set. He earned the desiderated break in the fourth game and leaped to a 4-1 lead. The Spaniard swiped in remaining serves with poise and clicked the set with a 6-3 victory.
Summing up the 26-year-old’s performance, Almagro hammered eight aces and brushed off all four breakpoints he faced. He manifested a lower first serve share of 49 per cent as compared to his rival’s 54 per cent but impressively availed 22 out of 27 points on it.
Next up for Almagro is the American qualifier, Brian Baker, who battled past Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in three sets to set-up this meeting.
The American underdog, who is currently ranked 216th at the ATP rankings, displayed exceptional defensive skills after brushing off nine out of 14 breakpoints he faced. On the other hand, Baker capitalised on eight out of 14 break chances to formulate a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 score line in two hours and 31 minutes. He also fired seven vicious aces and sealed the deal by earning 114 points. Baker nudged up a lower first serve share but impressively clicked 44 out of 72 points on it.
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