Pablo Andujar defeats Albert Montanes to make it to the quarterfinals – Mercedes Cup 2011
Espanola, Pablo Andujar, had run of the mill victory against his 30-year-old, compatriot, Albert Montanes at the TC Weissenhof Court, Stuttgart, Germany. Andujar bounced back from being set down to secure a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory in almost two hours.
Not meeting for the first time both the players were familiar with each other’s style and technique. They had met three times prior to this event (2011, 2010 and 2007) , with Albert Montanes winning the later two matches Pablo finally managed to win a match on the 9th of April this year at the Grand Prix Hassan-II-Casablanca Tournament held in Morocco, where Pablo had battled it out on a clay court and triumphed. The Celestial Power had granted him another chance to even out the score with his old time rival (Albert) at the Mercedes Cup on Thursday.
The first set of the match saw neither of the players throw an ace; the younger Spaniard’s accuracy seemed to sway and he struck four double faults out of which two hit the net. Although, the match was close, he was unable to stick it out and was unable to save four out of the eight break points that were presented to him. Eventually he was only able to win two break points to his advantage. Montanes, on the other hand, had saved four out six break point advantages and had won fifty percent of his break points. He had almost twice as many first serve points along with excellent second return points. Over all Albert bagged, forty seven percent of total service points, sixty six percent of total return points and a fifty six percent of total set points. The elder Spaniard was not the one to lose this time and thrashed the younger Spaniard winning 6-2.
After being defeated in the first set the 25-year-old jumped right back into the set. During the set Pablo threw two aces, had extreme precision and served zero double faults (a major improvement from the first set), won seventy nine percent of his first serve points and even though he had a very poor first return he saved two out of two break point achieving a hundred percent. In spite of winning the first set the second set saw Albert barely hanging in the set. He played three double faults, had only managed to win twenty one percent of first return points and did not utilize his two breakpoint advantages thus losing the set with a total of twenty nine out sixty two set points.
By the third set the older Espanola was completely worn out and exhausted; striking two double faults it seemed the ball was magnetically drawn to the net, his second serve points were only thirty three percent which was below the par as compared to his opponent who managed to win eighty six percent of his second serve points. He had very poor second return points mounting to only fourteen percent. Although he managed to save one out of three break points his overall performance in the set was disappointing as compared to his opponent who had won a total of fifty six percent of the total set points.
Both the later sets were largely dominated by Pablo’s presence on the court; across the board, Pablo had aced three times, won fifty eight percent of his total service points along with forty five percent of total return points thus achieving a total of ninety three points out of a hundred and eighty three.
The current world number fifty five, Pablo Andujar will be facing Fabio Fognini of Italy or Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany in the third round.
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