Nicolas Mahut takes down Sebastian Rieschick to clear the opening round – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
Seeded at number two in the tournament, Nicolas Mahut of France had no real difficulty in dispensing out Sebastian Rieschick of Germany in the opening round of Open Castilla y Leon, being played at Segovia, Spain, on Monday afternoon.
It was an absolute one-sided matchup, with Mahut dominating in every minute of play to wrap up victory at 6-1, 6-2, to reach the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event. It took just
59 minutes for Rieschick to surrender the game in the second set of the contest to end his voyage at the Open Castilla y Leon.
The German was led down by his error-ridden game in the contest, as he sprayed a number of errant strokes all over the court to bestow easy points to his opponent. Mahut’s victory was assisted by plenty of unforced errors, including
seven double faults, from Rieschick, who failed to craft a single break opportunity in the entire matchup. The second seeded French converted four out of eight break points en route to victory, while firing eighth thudding aces in the matchup.
Rieschick held his serve in just three games in the whole matchup and appeared in all sorts of confusion right from the first minute of play. The belligerent second seed was off to a flying start in the opening set and straight
away took hold of the game with his aggressive approach. Mahut nailed two consecutive break points to his opponent’s serve to race away to 5-0 lead in the opening set, driving Rieschick out of the contest.
The German finally held serve in the sixth game but Mahut closed out the first set in his name at 6-1 to get a one-set lead in the contest. French domination kept its full flow in the next set as well, with Mahut again striking
two serve breaks in a row to rocket away to 5-1 lead and inching closer to victory. Rieschick had no chance to withstand against the fury of Mahut and after failing to crack a serve break to get back in the set, the German succumbed at 2-6 to let the second
seeded French into the second round of the tournament.
Mahut will face the winner of the all-Spanish affair between Gerard Granollers and Jaime Pulgar-Garcia in the second round of Open Castilla y Leon later this week.
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