Nicolas Almagro takes down Lukas Rosol in the second round – German Tennis Championships 2011
Completing the top three in the third round, third seed Nicolas Almagro scored a convincing two set 6-4, 6-4 win against lucky loser Lukas Rosol. The Spanish Almagro, currently ranked at 14, showed adroitness par excellence and
won the match with visible ease. This 76 minutes match was the two players’ first meeting.
Only the 17th Spaniard to enter the top 10 on the rankings table, Almagro has had a successful season so far. At the recently concluded Swedish Open at Bastad, Almagro played superb tennis till the semis where he was
forced out by David Ferrer. Almagro is a two times quarter finalist at Hamburg, once in 2007 and another in 2009. This was Almagro’s first match in this year’s edition of the bet-at-home Open German Championships 2011 because he had earlier received a bye
in the first round.
Czech Lukas Rosol scored the highest points in the qualifying round, by virtue of which he got a free ride to the main draws because Jeremy Chardy quit the tournament due to an elbow injury. Rosol had defeated Italian giant Potito
Starace in his opening match of the tournament.
Rosol played the opening game of the first set and initially it looked that the match could go either way. Both the players played equally well and fought feverishly to keep on each other’s tail. The game quickly reached the 4-4
mark but then Almagro soared ahead. Almagro successfully converted a breakpoint in what proved to be the second last game of the set and took off on an unbreakable lead. Despite serving almost equally and bagging similar first serve points; it was Rosol’s
inability to gather more than 42% second serve points that cost him the match. Almagro veered safely past both of the serve break situation hurtled towards him.
The second set followed suit and Rosol posed almost no hindrance to his opponent in winning the set. Rosol served exceedingly well in both the sets and won a total of 10 aces against his opponent’s 7 in the entire match. He served
at around 76%, way higher than Almagro’s dismal 40% but was unable to ward off the devastating breakpoints which eventually left him trailing. This set saw Almagro winning two breakpoints against Rosol’s one. The score board at the end read 6-4 again and Almagro
took away the match.
Almagro’s third round match on Thursday will see him playing against German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
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