Pere Riba trashes Victor Hanescu to advance into second round – Bet-At-Home Cup 2011
Spaniard Pere Riba prevailed in the first set tie-breaker to dump the Romanian Victor Hanescu in straight sets at the Bet-At-Home Cup 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event held on the clay courts in Kitzbuhel, Austria. He registered
a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory over the 30-year-old Romanian to advance into the second round on Monday.
World number 77, Riba fended off early resistance to earn a straight set victory against the Romanian, ranked 13 places above him, in one hour and forty minutes on their first meeting. The Spaniard not only advanced into the second
round at the Tennis stadium Kitzbuhel but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Hanescu.
Both tennis ace played their best tennis in the opening set and displayed exceptional skills to pluck in their serves. Riba and Hanescu produced acceptable first serve share and founded several breakpoint opportunities but converted
one to their advantage and took the set to a tie-breaker.
Regardless of slamming seven aces and producing a higher first serve share of 58 percent, the Spaniard was able to convert only a single breakpoint opportunity to his advantage. However, he prevailed in the tie-breaker to pocket
the opener with a 7-6(3) win in almost an hour.
23-year-old Riba carried his winning ways into the final set and smacked powerful groundstrokes to reel off entire serves until he found the critical break in the seventh game. Despite losing the edge in the very next game, he
roared back by converting another breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to eventually bag the set with a 6-4 win.
Riba produced more errors and double faults but displayed brilliant skills to earn a straight set victory. He registered a slightly lower first serve share of 61 percent as compared to Romanian’s 63 percent but earned an impressive
74 percent win on it.
The Spaniard will next face the winner of the match between sixth seeded Italian Andreas Seppi and Uzbek Denis Istomin. However, Riba needs to practice harder to overpower a seeded player.
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