Roberto Bautista Agut, Augustin Gensse enter the 2nd round – San Sebastian Challengers 2011
Number eight seed Roberto Bautista Agut thrashed out fellow countryman Ivan Navarro 6-3, 6-4 on Monday to book his place in the second round of 2011 International San Sebastian Tennis Challengers here in San Sebastian Spain.
The 23-year-old looked a bit out of sorts early on but as the match progressed, he raised his game to higher level and successfully closed out the contest in straight sets in 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Looking for a place in the second round of red clay tournament, Agut made a confident start to the match. He executed his big forehand and backhand winners to perfection and won every battle right from the word go. The Spaniard
had his first chance of breaking the serve in sixth game of the opening set, which he converted with a brilliantly executed drop shot. With that serve break, Agut took a crucial 5-3 lead, serving for the set.
Clinching four straight points on his next service game, he bagged the opener in style as he took the set score lead 1-0.
The second set also followed a pretty similar trend as both players struggled to break each other. Despite receiving numerous chances to break the serve, Navarro failed to impress the critics. He eventually paid the price for his
shaky conduct as more and more unforced errors started to come off his racquet. Agut on the other hand, continued to display some high quality tennis. Leading 5-4 in the second set, he earned two match points for himself and then converted the first one with
ferocious backhand winner cross court.
Ranked 181st in the Association of Tennis Professional’s ranking, Agut played cracking tennis throughout the contest. His first server point’s conversion was an impressive 66 per cent while he also secured almost 45
per cent of the points on his second serve. Returning the ball incredibly well on his opponent serve, he claimed more than 42 per cent of the points which played a great part in his victory.
Saving seven out of seven break points in the match, Agut had a rock solid defense. Navarro was unable to find his game under pressure as he leaked crucial points. He will be hoping to come back strongly on his next appearance
on the tour.
Number six seed Augustin Gensse also came through with a solid 6-2, 7-5 victory over Andre Begemann of Germany to advance into the second round of ITF level tournament.
Gensse broke serve four times in the match that lasted for only one hour and 28 minutes. He will be looking to post similar performances in his next showings at the tournament.
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