Philipp Kohlschreiber rallies ahead; Albert Montanes retires – German Tennis Championships 2011
Things were looking up for German Philip Kohlschreiber right from the start of the second round match against Spaniard Albert Montanes. Montanes had continuous trouble playing effectively due to a persistent neck pain and eventually
had to give in and retire in the sixth game of the second set. Kohlschreiber took full benefit of his opponent’s disadvantage and maintained a healthy lead throughout forty nine minutes of play. At match’s end the score board stood at 6-1, 3-2. Kohlschreiber
will now play his third round match at the Centre Court of the Rothenbaum Tennis Centre on Thursday.
This was sixteenth seed Montanes first match of the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011 since he had received a first round bye. The 49thranked Spaniard raked in his best performance of the season of the
season at Rolland Garros, where he managed to reach the fourth round before losing out to Italian Fabio Fognini. Montanes has been unable to perform well since then and lost to compatriot Pablo Andujar in a second round match at the recently concluded Mercedes
Cup.
The 43rd ranked German meanwhile has been at the top of his game. He made a flamboyant entry into the tournament by defeating defending champion Andrey Golubev 7-5, 6-3 in his very first match. Even on Wednesday, Kohlschreiber
was playing superbly till the game was cut short by Montanes’ retirement.
Kohlschreiber opened the first set by serving first and registered a seething serve break in the very next game, limiting Montanes to just 30 points in that game. He continued unchallenged and successfully converted another break
of serve in fourth game, leading the scores to an unchallenged 5-0. Montanes was able to bag only one of the seven games and Kohlschreiber easily pulled through 6-1 in the set. Despite serving at an unimpressive 59%, as compared to Montanes’ 68%, Kohlschreiber
managed to grab as many first serve points as his opponent. Kohlschreiber also delivered 4 well placed aces to obliterate his already struggling opponent and closed the set at 6-1 with a colossal lead.
The second set was faring a little better for Montanes until his neck pain got the better of him and the set remained un-concluded. Montanes had opened serve in this set and the game had gone up till the 2-2 mark almost smoothly.
Kohlschreiber then recovered by recording a breakpoint in the 5th game of the second set. Knowing that he could never recover, Montanes called it quits leaving Kohlschreiber to forge ahead to the next round.
Kohlschreiber will now face his toughest competitor yet in the tournament, as his third round match places him against third seed Nicolas Almagro in the courts at Hamburg.
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