Philipp Kohlschreiber overcomes Bjorn Phau in the first round – German Tennis Championships 2012
In a match between two local players, sixth seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber revived his game after losing the first set to down the 76th ranked, Bjorn Phau, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Bet-at-home German
Tennis Championships in Hamburg on Tuesday. The higher ranked contender took one hour and 49 minutes to undo Phau.
In the first four games of the match, Kohlschreiber and Phau held their serves and levelled the score at 2-2. Phau hit the initial blow by snatching a break in the fifth game to go up 3-2 but his opponent struck back immediately
to once again draw level at 3-3. However, Phau was fully determined, as he clinched a break point again in the seventh and won his subsequent serve to grab a 5-3 advantage. The 32-year-old allowed Kohlschreiber to claim only one more game, closing it 6-4.
Kohlschreiber put his act together after getting surprised in the opener, snatching the first three games of the second set to attain a 3-0 lead. The following four went with the serve to take the score to 5-2 in Kohlschreiber’s
favour. Serving to stay in contention at that moment, Phau went up 40-15 but squandered three hold chances to lose it 2-6.
The third set saw steadiest start of the match, as Kohlschreiber and Phau held their serve in the opening seven games to take the score to 4-3 in favour of the former. Although, Kohlschreiber had faced a severe resistance on his
serve at 3-3, putting away a break threat. He produced some flawless tennis after getting out of the danger, pocketing eight of the next nine points to capture it 6-3.
Kohlschreiber bombarded eight aces on his countryman and committed a couple of double faults. The German had a satisfactory first serve percentage of 68, securing 44 of the 62 points on them. The Altstaetten, Switzerland, resident
failed to save two of the three break points he faced but compensated that by converting four of the six he received.
Commenting on the match afterwards, Kohlschreiber said, “It was not so easy. Bjorn is playing pretty well at the moment and it’s not so easy to change from grass to clay, but I think after losing the first set I raised my level.
I got more control over the game and I think second and third set especially I played very solid and aggressive tennis.”
Ranked 22nd in the world, Kohlschreiber will face Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the next match.
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