Nicolas Mahut dispenses out Gerard Granollers in second round – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
Seeded at number two in the tournament, Nicolas Mahut of France, outplayed the Spanish opponent, Gerard Granollers in the second round of Open Castilla y Leon, in Segovia, Spain, on Wednesday afternoon.
Being part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour, the competition was played on the hard court of Segovia, with the local boy failing to come up to the expectations of his home crowd. Mahut wrapped up
victory in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, to make it into the quarter-final round of the tournament with the utmost ease.
Getting into the tournament draws as a wildcard, Granollers hung in the game for just one hour and nineteen minutes of play before surrendering to the belligerent Frenchman in the second set of the matchup. He competed well in
the opening set but a crucial serve break from his opponent towards the end closed the out the set. Granollers failed to pose any serious resistance to the hard-hitting Mahut in the second set and proved to be a wall of sand, crumbling under the pressure of
defeat.
The second seeded French delivered 68 per cent of his serve on target in the competition and cracked in seven fiery aces along with it. He crafted seven opportunities to break the Spanish serve in the game and cashed in four chances
en route to victory, while his competitor followed him with two break point conversions out of five chances to finish on the losing side.
An exchange of serve breaks was seen in the opening set, flowed by a regular game to take the scores to 5-5. Mahut clinched 17, whereas the Spaniard collected 12 first serve points in the opening set and a tie breaker was about
to come into play but the Frenchman nailed the all-important serve break to close out the set at 7-5.
Once getting into the required momentum, Mahut proved absolutely destructive in the following set and stung two consecutive break points to reach 4-1. A total of 47 points were played in the second set and Mahut secured 29 out
of them, while Granollers clinched just 18 to let his opponent away with victory. The French sealed victory by bagging the second set at 6-3, to get into the quarter-finals of the tournament, where he will face the unseeded Russian, Evgeny Donskoy, for a place
in the semis. The Russian was successful against the seventh seeded Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium in the second round clash.
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