Nicolas Almagro tumbles over Paolo Lorenzi to reach round two – French Open 2012
Seeded 12th in the tournament, Nicolas Almagro took down the Italian contender, Paolo Lorenzi, in straight sets at the Roland Garros 2012 on Tuesday. He nudged up a 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory against the Rome native to charge into the second round
at this clay court Grand Slam event held in Paris, France.
The Spanish number three triumphed over Lorenzi after cashing in five out of eight break chances. The players last fought each other at the qualifying competition of this event eight years ago and after earning this victory, Almagro maintained his winning
record against the world number 86.
Almagro thundered into the court number seven and drew the first blood in the second game to go 2-0 up. Regardless of gifting away his serve in the third game, the Spaniard broke his opponent’s serve again and leaped to a 4-1 lead. He then held his remaining
serves and clicked the opener with a 6-3 win.
Ranked 13th in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Rankings, Almagro lost his track towards the second game and suffered the first blow in the eighth game to trail at 3-5. However, he made a spectacular
reply after that and reeled off the last four games, eventually sealing the set by winning seven games to five.
The 26-year-old kept momentum rolling in the final set and bagged his entire serves after brushing off both breakpoints he came across. He got the breakthrough in the fifth game by cashing in lone break opportunity and clinched the set with a 6-4 score line.
The in-form Spaniard improved to a 25-6 win-loss record on clay, his season’s best record. Apart from committing 46 unforced errors, Almagro ruled the match by firing 56 winners and striking 14 aces.
Up next for Almagro is Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis who stunned the Argentinean rising star, Juan Ignacio Chela, with a breadstick to progress at this event.
The eighth seed, Janko Tipsarevic, will join Almagro in the second round. He bounced back to overpower the American contender, Sam Querrey, in a four-set thriller to earn the fame.
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