Robert Farah knocks out Guillermo Duran in the first round – Seguros Bolivar Open 2011
World number 165, defending champion Robert Farah of Colombia prevailed over world number 396 Guillermo Duran of Argentina in straight sets 6-1, 7-6(5) in the first round at the Seguros Bolivar Open in Bogota, Colombia on Monday.
It took the Colombian an hour and nineteen minutes to beat his opponent.
Farah was almost flawless in the first set as he dropped only one game in the entire set. The Colombian broke Duran in the second game and held his serve in the next game, taking a 3-0 lead. The 24-year-old broke again in the sixth
game and served out the set at 5-1.
The Colombian fired 71 percent of the first serves and two aces in the opening set. Farah did not lose even a single point on the first serve, converting 100 percent of them into points. The right-handed also grabbed four of the
five second service points in the first set. On the other hand, Duran was no way near his opponent as he won just 53 percent of the points on first serve and a meagre 33 percent of the points on second serve in the opening set. The Argentinean failed to create
any break point opportunity on Farah’s serve and could not save two of the four break points on his own serve in the first set.
After losing the opening set abysmally, Duran made a strong start in the second set as he broke the Colombian in the fourth game and consolidated on it to blaze forward to a 4-1 lead. However, Farah came back, breaking the Argentinean
in the ninth game and holding his serve in the next game to equalise the score at 5-5. The Colombian and Duran held their serve in the next two games to take the set to a tie-break. Farah bagged a late mini-break in the tie-break, clinching it 7-5.
The Colombian could not match his opening set’s first serve performance in the second set as he delivered just 51 percent of the first serves and converted 79 percent of them into points. Farah committed a couple of double faults
and captured just ten of the eighteen second service points. However, the Bogota resident managed to seal 38 percent of the first return points compared to just 21 percent by his opponent. The six feet and four inches tall converted one of the three break
points he received on Duran’s serve in the second set.
Farah will face either Horacio Zeballos of Argentina or Ricardo Hocevar of Brazil in the second round.
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