Potito Starace cruises past Albert Montanes in the opening round – Heineken Open 2012
30-year-old, Potito Starace, trashed Albert Montanes in straight sets at the Heineken Open 2012, an ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 series event taking place on the hard courts in Auckland, New Zealand.
He penned down a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Spaniard in the opening round on Tuesday.
World number 56, Starace, remained on course to bid his maiden career title after earning a straight set victory over the Spaniard, ranked six places above him in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings. He not only maintained
his winning streak against Montanes but also extended lead in their head-to-head series by 4-0.
The Italian went into the savage mode shortly after stepping at the ASB Tennis Centre and stroke out opening three games to go 3-0 up. Later, he held the remaining serves without facing any breakpoint and clinched the opening set
with a 6-3 score line. Despite having only a 33 percent of breakpoints winning share, Starace dominated throughout the set and registered an impressive 16 out of 21 points on his first serve.
Starace kept momentum sailing into the second set and held his opening serve to tie the scores at 1-1. After Montanes kept his second serve, the Italian unleashed flurry of ground strokes to reel off the next five games in a row,
subsequently earning the spot light with a 6-2 score line. He never faced any breakpoint and had an impressive breakpoint winning share of 67 percent. Starace also clobbered a higher first serve share of 79 percent and clinched an amazing 13 out of 15 points
on it.
Next in line for the Italian is the Colombian Alejandro Falla who made an epic comeback to stun the seventh seed, Donald Young, in a three setter nail-biter to set up this meeting. Falla dusted away six out of nine breakpoints
he came across and capitalised on five out of eleven break chances, sealing the deal with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in almost two hours on Monday.
Benoit Paire will join the Italian in the second round after overpowering a former world number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero, with a similar 6-3, 6-2 score line. The French failed to defend the only breakpoint he came across but converted
three out of eight break chances to his advantage.
The 22-year-old French will face the fourth seeded Argentine, Juan Ignacio Chela, who received a first round bye after being a top four player of the tournament.
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