Vasek Pospisil, Clement Reix race into the second round – Van Open 2011 CH
Michael Yani’s run in the Van Open 2011 ended as he fell to first round defeat in three sets to the home favourite Vasek Pospisil of Canada. The American, Yani recovered
from an out-of-sorts showing in the opening set to take the match the distance but was outplayed by his Canadian opponent, who eventually won the match 6(3)-7, 6-4, 7-6(1).
Pospisil gathered himself quickly and fought superbly to record a hard- earned victory over Yani, who gave him a tough test, winning the first set and building a huge pressure
upon the Canadian, although he could not maintain the level of his game and lost match, taking two hours and twenty three minutes of play.
Looking into the match, Pospisil served out to love in the opening game of the match but was broken in his next service game, with Yani presenting unerring accuracy to cement
the break.
The Canadian managed to stay neck and neck in the opener, taking the set to a tie-breaker, but once the American found his range of blistering shots, Yani was soon breaking
through his defenses again to take the set 7-6(3).
However, the roles were reversed in the second set as Pospisil found some groove with his serve and applied enough pressure on Yani to win 69 percent on first serve, winning
the second set 6-4 and taking the score at one set apiece as the match was pushed into the third.
The mach continued in topsy-turvy fashion at the start of the decider as both the men traded breaks in the opening games to force the second tie-breaker of the match. However,
it was the Canadian who managed to break for 7-6 before serving out for a victory which he may think was more difficult than it needed to be.
He now moves on to face Bradley Klahn of America in the second round of Van Open here on Thursday.
Elsewhere Clement Reix of France also needed three sets to beat the American Adam El Mihdawy and eventually winning 6(4)-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Mihdawy may be ranked 376 in the world but he still possessed deadly weapons and, for the first set, the American used them well enough to suggest that he might give the
higher ranked a nasty surprise. Then, with the flashes of some gutsy shot-making, everything changed suddenly and Reix who had appeared under a lot of pressure at first, became the master of change of direction and pace, and clinched the match taking two hours
and eleven minutes of play.
He now moves on into the second round of the tournament where he will meet seventh-seeded Fritz Wolmarans of South Africa.
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