Philipp Petzschner edges past Dominik Meffert into the second round – Gerry Weber Open 2011
In an all German match, Philipp Petzschner warded off late resistance against his compatriot Dominik Meffert to win in straight sets at Gerry Weber Open 2011, a sensational opening of the grass court season in Halle, Germany.
He registered a 6-2, 7-6(5) win over the lucky loser, Meffert, to advance into the second round on Tuesday.
Ranked 71st in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Petzschner took one hour and eighteen minutes to dump the German, ranked 133 places below him, and advanced in the tournament. Both countrymen were facing
each other for the first time and after earning this victory, Petzschner took the lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Meffert.
After the lower ranked held his serve in the first game, Petzschner swallowed proceeding four games to take a 4-1 lead. Regardless of losing his serve in the sixth game, he broke Meffert’s serve again in proceeding game and held
his serve in the last game to seal the opener by winning six games to two.
Petzschner produced a disastrous 46 percent first serve share as compared to his countryman’s 71 percent. However, he registered an impressive 64 percent win on it. In addition to this, the winner saved two out of three breakpoints
faced and converted three out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
27-year-old Petzschner outclassed his compatriot, three years older than him, in the final set as well. Regardless of making a shaky start and losing the first three games, he stayed calm and broke back the elder’s serve in the
seventh game and held his serve in the proceeding game to level the scores at 4-4. Petzschner then held his remaining serves plausibly and took the set to tie-breaker. He prevailed in it to bag the final set with a 7-6(5) victory.
The veteran German, Petzschner clobbered a similar first serve share and earned a spectacular 84 percent win on it. To sugar coat it further, he smacked four aces and committed zero double faults as compared to Meffert’s three.
"I played very well in the first set, I started well," said Petzschner. "I had a stupid break in the second set. I served for the game and hit a volley and he took [it]. But otherwise it was good. I'm satisfied."
2010’s semi-finalist here, Petzschner will next face Spaniard Daniel Gimeno Traver who barely did anything in the opening set but bounced back with a bang to win the match against Kazakh Andrey Golubev in a three set thriller.
Traver hammered ten aces and converted two out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win by 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 score line in almost two hours.
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