Nicolas Mahut outclasses Diego Junqueira in first round – Moselle Open 2011
In the clash of the two unseeded contestants, the local contestant Nicolas Mahut outplayed Diego Junqueira of Argentina in the opening round of the Moselle Open on Tuesday night.
The contest was staged on the hard courts of the Arenes de Metz, in Metz, France, with Mahut qualifying for the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
The 29-year-old French veteran took just one hour to wrap up a convincing straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-2, to dispense out the bleak Argentine in the most authoritative manner. Mahut faced no real difficulty in outplaying Junqueira
in the contest and cruised through the games without any serious resistance from the unseeded opponent.
The Frenchman dropped just two points on his serve in the entire matchup, reeling off 25 out of 27 first serve points in the game to drive the Argentine out of the tournament. Mahut converted half of his six break opportunities,
without facing a single break point from Junqueira in the entire matchup.
Junqueira delivered his serve with 71 per cent precision, securing 21 out of 34 points in the game but utterly failed to craft a break point to finish on the losing side in the end. Mahut adopted the aggressive strategy right from
the beginning and kept pressing his opponent to commit unforced errors on regularity.
The unseeded French was off to a flyer in the opening set and broke Junqueira in his very first serve game of the day to race away to a 3-0 lead early in the contest. Junqueira’s bleak baseline defence gave Mahut ample opportunities
to crack in thudding winners on regularity and the Frenchman held his lead without any trouble. Mahut wrapped up the opening set at 6-3 to get one up in the contest in just 35 minutes of play.
The French domination kept prevailing with its intensity in the following set as well, with Mahut nailing two straight serve breaks to lead 4-0 in no time. Junqueira held his serve in the remaining games of the set but his inability
to strike a break point proved very taxing for him in the match. Mahut kept his lead to conclude an easy victory at 6-2, moving into the second round of the Moselle Open.
Mahut will take on the winner of the all-French affair between the fifth seed Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, in the second round of the tournament.
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