Robin Haase dumps Kittipong Wachiramanowong in first round – PTT Thailand Open 2011
World number 42, Robin Haase of Netherlands, had to manoeuvre his way to victory against the local wildcard entrant, Kittipong Wachiramanowong, in the opening round of the PTT Thailand Open on Monday afternoon.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the Impact Arena, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the 21-year-old local contestant failing to come up to the expectations of his home crowd. Haase took one hour and twenty four minutes
to wrap up victory in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(1), making his way to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
The seventh seeded Dutch faced lesser trouble in the opener and cruised through the games to get one up in no time. Wachiramanowong made his way back in the game in the following set, giving Haase some tough time to drag the set
into a tie breaker round but eventually fell in the decider to lose the matchup.
Haase delivered just 57 per cent of his serve on target, firing nine cracking aces and reeling 29 out of 35 first serve points in the matchup. He registered four break points out of his 11 opportunities, while the Thai opponent
struck just two serve breaks in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
“I was a break up in the second set and thought I was going to win it easy because I was playing much better than him,” admitted Haase after winning the contest. “But on the big points he played some great shots. I knew that I
didn’t need to worry if it got into a tie-break because I knew I had more experience than him and that was the really big advantage for me today.”
The seventh seeded Dutch broke his opponent in the very first game of the matchup, only to be broken immediately to reach 2-2. Haase went on with his aggressive intent in the game and nailed two more break point conversions to
wrap up the first set at 6-3, to get one up in the contest.
The following set witnessed an early trade of the serve breaks, followed by a regular game to impose a tie breaker round at 6-6. Wachiramanowong failed to handle the pressure of defeat in the decider and crumbled at 6-7(1) to let
Haase a convincing victory in the first round of the PTT Thailand Open.
Haase will have to wait for to know his second round opponent, as Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Dominic Thiem of Austria will compete in the opening round to face him.
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