Nicolas Mahut blows away Milan Pokrajac to clear the opening round – Challenger of Granby 2011 CH
Third seed Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, powered through the opening round of the National Bank’s Challenger of Granby, after defeating the local wildcard, Milan Pokrajac on Tuesday.
Rated at number 96 in world rankings, Mahut exhibited a high quality display of pro tennis to completely devastate his opponent in straight sets 6-1, 6-1, to make it in to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
Challenger Tour event.
The contest was played on the hard courts of Granby, Canada, with French domination prevailing every single minute of play. The Canadian contestant hung in the match for merely 56 minutes before he surrendered to the fury of Mahut
in straight sets. Pokrajac utterly failed to pose any serious resistance to his opponent in the entire contest and proved a total mismatch for the hard-hitting Mahut.
The French was up to a fiery start and made his 72 per cent precise serve his primary weapon of destruction, securing 12 out of 18 first serve points in the opening set. His forehand worked perfectly for him, firing a number of
cracking winners down the line to put the bleak Canadian competitor under pressure.
Pokrajac appeared in all sorts of confusions from the very first minute of play and dropped serve early to let Mahut off to a flayer, trailing 0-3. His prone baseline defence was breached a number of times by the aggressive Frenchman,
who continued will his belligerence to break serve at 4-0 again. The Canadian finally broke the impetus of Mahut by registering his first serve break of the day to curtail the deficit to 1-5 but it proved a bit too late for Pokrajac, as his opponent nailed
another break point to leave him answerless. Mahut sealed the opening set at 6-1 to force a 1-0 lead over his opponent in the contest.
The next set was a complete replication of the first one, with French domination being witnessed in its absolute effect. Pokrajac held serve in just one game before suffering three straight serve breaks from Mahut to be driven
closer to defeat. The Canadian eventually crumbled at 1-6, letting an authoritative victory to the French and giving him pass to the second round of Challenger of Granby.
Mahut will next take on either Joshua Milton of the Great Britain or the German competitor, Simon Stadler, in the second round of the tournament, after the clash between these two men get settled on Wednesday.
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