Robin Haase outlasts Simone Vagnozzi in opener – Studena Croatia Open 2011
Dutch number one, Robin Haase bounced back at the Italian qualifier, Simone Vagnozzi to earn a three setter victory at the Studena Croatia Open 2011, a clay court tournament held in Umag, Croatia. He registered a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
victory over the 28-year-old Italian to advance into the second round on Tuesday.
World number fifty-two, Haase took almost two hours to triumph over the qualifier, ranked 140 places below him, on their first meeting. He has now confidently reached the round of sixteen at this ATP World Tour 250 series event.
The Italian made a shaky start at the ITC Stella Maris as he lost his serve in the very first game. However, he roared back with a fit reply as the Dutchman strike out next three games in a row before losing his serve again in
the fifth again. The series of exchange of breaks continued in the following two games but the Italian edged past Dutch after converting breakpoint opportunity to his advantage for the fourth time in the eighth game. Vagnozzi held his serve in the last game
to pocket the opening set with a 6-3 score line.
24-year-old Dutchman turned the tables around in the second set. He saved a brilliant 80 percent of breakpoints faced and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to bag the equaliser with a 6-3 wins.
Despite committing more double faults and clobbering a lower first serve share of 63 percent as compared to Italian’s 75 percent,
Haase went out of control in the final set as he smashed groundstrokes and forehands all over the court to reel off first four games in a row. After Vagnozzi held his serve in the fifth game, the Netherlands’ super star won the
last two games to earn a breadstick. He clobbered a slightly higher first serve share but earned a perfect win on it. Above all, Haase mustered the set by facing zero breakpoint and cashing in on all three breakpoint chances to his advantage to win comfortably.
Up next for the Netherlands super star is the four seed local hero, Marin Cilic who received a bye from the first round after being a top four seed here.
22-year-old Cilic is in great form this season as he reached final at Marseille before losing to top seeded Swede Robin Soderling. He then made quarter-final berths at Zagreb, Rotterdam, Munich, Rome and Hamburg before entering
this ATP event.
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