Philipp Kohlschreiber expels defending champion Andrey Golubev –
German Tennis Championships 2011
Much to his dismay, the defending champion Andrey Golubev couldn’t even outlast his first match of this year’s edition of the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships. Philipp Kohlschreiber increased the tally of German wins
on Tuesday by one more by successfully capitalizing on the capitulating display of skills by Golubev. The match, which lasted for a little over an hour and a half ended 7-5, 6-3 with Kohlschreiber soundly moving to the second round of the competition.
Crowds in Hamburg were taken aback last year when Golubev, from Kazakhstan, secured a bewildering straight set win to secure the 2010 title. This was the Kazakh’s first ATP Title and he had been ranked at No. 82 at the time. However,
Golubev has been in the midst of a bad season this year and would have been eagerly looking towards ending a 15 match losing streak in this match, but to no avail.
The 43rd ranked German Kohlschreiber, while talking with the ATP website after the win said “I knew he didn’t win so many matches this year, but of course if you feel great at a place like here – you’re the winner from
last year – you always know you can play very good. I knew he was very dangerous today.”
The first set saw both the contenders hit two aces past each other and they both served at almost equal first serve percentages, 46% for Kohlschreiber and 50% for Golubev. The closely contested first set saw also saw both the players
winning exactly equal 13 points off their serves. With the game stagnated at the 5-5 mark, Kohlschreiber powered through by registering a crucial break of serve in the eleventh game and eventually won the set at 7-5.
Golubev opened serve in the second set, but only to be broken by Kohlschreiber. Golubev fought back by successfully converting a breakpoint in the very next game of the set and the score that steadily climbed to the 3-3 mark. Kohlschreiber
won 11 points off his 15 serves while Golubev also managed to seize 11 but off 20 serves. After Gobulev’s failure to convert a breakpoint to his advantage, Kohlschreiber came out stronger and registered two nerve wracking breaks of serve and went on to effortlessly
win the set 6-3.
Kohlschreiber’s next match will see him duelling against Spaniard Albert Montanes, seeded at sixteenth in the main draw. Montanes had earlier received a bye to the second round of the tournament.
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