Xavier Malisse battles out Albert Ramos in straight sets in round 1 – Erste Bank Open 2011
Xavier Malisse, Belgian world No.50, went disparaging against Spaniard, Albert Ramos, ranked world No.69, in the opening round of Erste Bank Open 2011. An hour and three minutes melee ended up with the higher ranked Belgian taking
away a rather easy win, 6-1, 6-4, an indoor hard court match at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.
Playing head-to-head for the very first time, the 23-year-old Spaniard could not get a good hold of his defence against the mighty Belgian. Falling short in the first set Ramos did pull back in the second, however, could not get
enough to win even a single set.
With the two making their way onto the blue circuit, Belgian 31-year-old won the toss and served first to start the match.
Opening up serving first, Malisse took out the starter winning a triple game point, 1-0. Following up right away, Ramos replied with a triple game point winner as well and levelled up the scores at 1-1. Winning away his second
serve of the match, Belgian world No.50 manoeuvred game 3 in his favour before he ignited.
Breaking world No.69 the veteran Belgian lead the set, 3-1, before serving out the following game, game 5, to bag 3 straight games. Thrashing the Spaniard again, Malisse broke Ramos again in game 6, 5-1, and was now left with
just one more win to lead the match with a set win.
Serving out a marvellous triple set point winner, Malisse outgunned the 23-year-old capturing the first set to lead the match, 1-0.
Down and unable to counter the higher ranked rival, Ramos served the opener of set two. Breaking the Spaniard early in set two, Malisse staggered the 23-year-old with two straight games and led the set 2-0. Winning his first game,
the Spaniard finally rolled down his side of the scoreboard, 1-2.
Unable to break Ramos lost another game while the Belgian maintained his 2 games lead winning game 4, 3-1. Winning game 5, the Spaniard did cut the lead to 3-2, yet his offence was not so strong to break the solid defence of the
Belgian world No.50.
Leading 5-4 in game 9, Malisse ended the 23-year-old’s run in the ATP World Tour as he ended the second set winning with a super double match point winner to walk off into the second round of Erste Bank Open 2011.
Through to the next stage of the ATP World Tour 250 event, Malisse will now face the eighth seeded Italian, Fabio Fognini, in the second round as they clash out to battle the quarter-final round chair.
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