Santiago Giraldo edges past Robin Haase into second round – Rakuten Open 2011
Santiago Giraldo, Columbian World No. 53, went on to bulldoze the world No.41, Robin Haase, in straight set as they fought out for the 1st round win of the Rakuten Open 2011. Playing on the blue hard court at Ariake
Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan the 23-year-old finalized the match with a close tiebreak win to bag the match 6-3, 7-6(6) in an hour and 53 minutes match of the ATP Tour 500 event.
Comparatively, Giraldo had a lesser chance of winning against the Dutch. Haase had a better ranking added with his greater number of match wins in his prior ten fixtures. However, Giraldo had been playing for a longer time. With
their rankings not in much discrepancy Giraldo took his chance and pocketed the first round of the event with style.
Starting off with the fixture, Giraldo, Columbian world No.53, went off serving out the first set saving a breakpoint, 1-0. Following the 23-year-old, Haase put on his first win of the match and rolled down the scoreboard winning,
1-1. Igniting the match, Giraldo dominated as he served-n-broke the Dutch world No.41 and took the lead 3-1.
Haase did try to break back next as in game 5 both players deuced more than 4 times. Eventually the Columbian held his defence and further extended his lead to 4-1. Winning his second game of the set, Haase followed up with the
23-year-old taking down the lead to 2-4.
Unable to break back, the 24-year-old Dutch kept of lagging behind as Giraldo mustered away with serving out 2 out the last 3 games Giraldo captivated the first set winning 6-3 and took the lead in the match, 1-0.
Commanding the fixture the Columbian stood to play the Dutch next for the first game of the second set. Following the first set win by Haase, Giraldo levelled up instantly and switched back the serve, 1-1. With the two rallying
out games on respective games the two levelled up at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and at 5-5.
As the set eventually fell into a tiebreaker, Haase followed up serving first for the decider game, set. Overpowering the Dutch world No.41, Giraldo mesmerized the stands and his counterpart beating him in the tiebreaker 7-6 winning
the set, 7-6(6), and took away the match in straight sets.
Making his way into the 2nd round of the event, the Columbian will now play Dmitry Tursunov for a spot in the quarterfinals.
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