Nicolas Mahut battles past against Guillermo Garcia in opening round – 2011 Valencia Open 500
Nicolas Mahut, French world No.103, over shadowed his opening round competitor of the 2011 Valencia Open 500, Spanish world No.67, Guillermo Garcia, crumbling him down in straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-2, in an hour and 38 minutes indoor
hard circuit match at Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, Valencia, Spain on Monday, 31st October.
Playing head-to-head for the second time, Mahut bagged his second win against the Spaniard, breaking him on clay previously and this time on hard circuit as well. Despite the disparity in ranking, the Spaniard seemed helpless against
the 29-year-old Frenchman. Anyhow, the two walked down the blue circuit and took their sides to start the tie.
Firing up the opening round match of the ATP World Tour 500 event, Mahut kicked off with the opening serve and scored the first game, 1-0. Following up with the Frenchman, Garcia blazed away the second game, his first serve, and
levelled up the scores at 1-1.
Unable to break each other the two levelled up again at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 and then on 5-5, saving several breakpoints as well. Serving out a game each next, the two ended up in a tiebreaker set with Frenchman to initiate the tiebreaker.
With a super performance by the world No.103, took away the tiebreaker overpowering the Spaniard, 7-5, and won the set, 7-6(5), and moved onto set two.
Although the disparity in ranking should’ve proved as an advantage, this time it seemed just the opposite. Anyhow, Garcia, down and struggling in the first set, stood to serve the second set opener, however, was slammed back to
the ground with a stunning breakpoint by the 29-year-old Frenchman.
Advantaging from the early break, Mahut extended his lead bagging his second consecutive win, 2-0. Finally, the Spaniard took off winning game three, yet could not break back to levelled up the lead, 2-1. Stepping up of the lead,
world No.103 pulled off another winner, 3-1, followed by the 28-year-old Spaniard winning his second game, 2-3.
Hopping to cut down the lead, Garcia did pose a strong defence, yet not strong enough. Serving out game six, 4-2, Mahut stormed in once again breaking the higher ranked Spaniard, game 7, and taking the lead 5-2. Left behind with
just one more win, the 29-year-old served out game eight winning the second set, 6-2, and the match with a staggering finish.
Through to the second stage of the ATP World Tour 500 event, Mahut goes on to clash out against the former world No.3 Russian, Nikolay Davydenko, for the quarter-final round seat of the 2011 Valencia Open 500.
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