Second seed Rainer Schuttler advances at qualifiers in Miami
2nd seeded German Rainer Schuttler overpowered American Bobby Reynolds in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 nail biting match to advance in the Men’s Singles qualifiers at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open on Monday.
Ranked 87th in the world, Schuttler recently displayed his tremendous skills by reaching the final at the Dallas Challenger before losing to American Alex Bogomolov Jr. He entered this tournament confidently and overpowered
the 28-year-old Reynolds convincingly. The 34-year-old German was clearly the better one in the opening set as he had a higher first serve share of 84 percent as compared to American’s 70 percent. Furthermore he registered an exceptional 94 percent win on
it. The German was charged up in the set as he only conceded one game and clinched the set with a breadstick.
In the second set, the world number 149 American quickly re-focused his strategy and turned the tables around. Reynolds, who recently reached the final as the top seeded player in the Rimouski Challenger, committed zero double
faults and earned an impressive 80 percent win on his higher first serve percentage. He also saved the only breakpoint he faced and converted one out of four breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to win the equalizer set 6-3.
Both players were in their top form in the final set as they exchanged an early break on and had a similar first serve share. Though Schuttler committed a double fault, he earned a plausible 78 percent win on his first serve and
broke the youngster’s serve again to clinch the set 6-4.
He will next face 24th seeded Slovenian Grega Zemlja. The 24-year-old Slovene dumped Spanish Ivan Navarro in straight sets to advance.
3rd seeded American Robert Kendrick will be joining the 2nd seed in the next qualifying round. World number 82, Kendrick trashed the world number 150, Croat Franco Skugor out of the tournament by earning a
6-2, 7-6(3) victory.
The 31-year-old American outshined the Croat and displayed his fascinating performance and hammered 14 aces in the match. He had a higher first serve percentage of 64 percent as opposed to 23-year-old Croat’s 60 percent. Kendrick
also earned an amazing 85 percent win on it.
In the opening set, the American overpowered the youngster by converting two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win the set 6-2.
Though, Skugor gave tough time to the American in the final set by breaking Kendrick’s serve once, the American quickly counterattacked by firing 10 aces. He also snatched the break back and took the set to tiebreaker where he
prevailed to clinch with a score line of 7-6(3).
He will next face 19th seeded German, Julian Reister who also reached this spot by registering a straight set win over American wild card Alexander Domijan.
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