Philipp Kohlschreiber topples Benoit Paire in the second round – US Open 2012
World number 20, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, came back from the jaws of defeat to edge past French player, Benoit Paire, in five sets 6-7(4), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) into the third round of the US Open in New York on Friday.
The German took three hours and 38 minutes to undo his rival in a nerve cracking match.
Kohlschreiber and Paire matched each other’s superb serve performance in the first set, as they held all of them till the end to take the score to 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. The Frenchman clinched a mini-break mid way through
it and capitalised on that to grab it 7-6(4).
Paire and Kohlschreiber did not drop their serve in the opening five games and took the score to 3-2 in the latter’s favour. The German star hit a blow to Paire in the sixth and consolidated on it to gain a 5-2 lead. Kohlschreiber
served it out without losing a single point at 5-3.
In the third set, Paire was just unstoppable, as he broke his German opponent in the second and fourth game, holding his own serves between them to race to a 5-0 lead. Kohlschreiber managed to break the bagel and went on to reduce
the gap to 3-5 but he still failed to come to level terms, losing it 3-6.
The German responded in almost similar manner in the fourth set, grabbing three games in a row at the start to build a 3-0 lead. Serving to stay in the set at 2-5, Paire saved a couple of break points but could not do the same
on the third one, going down 2-6.
Kohlschreiber drew the first blood in the final set, nailing a breakthrough in the fourth game to move ahead 4-1 but Paire bounced back to even out the proceedings at 4-4. They traded a strike again in the 11th and 12th
to take the score to 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. Kohlschreiber attained lead at the start and maintained it till the end to triumph 7-6(4).
The German contender will play the American number one, John Isner, in the third round.
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