Yen-Hsun Lu downs Jarkko Nieminen to secure a place in the second round – Gerry Weber Open 2011
Taipei Yen-Hsun Lu overcame early threat by Finn Jarkko Nieminen to earn a straight set victory at Gerry Weber Open 2011, a grass court tournament held in Halle, Germany. He registered a 7-6(2), 6-3 win over the 29-year-old Finn
to advance into the second round on Monday.
Ranked 53rd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Lu took one and half hour to down the Finn, ranked only three placed above him, in straight sets at Gerry Weber Stadion. The Taipei won on their last
meeting at Johannesburg last year. He kept his momentum in this match to take the lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against Nieminen.
27-year-old confidently entered at this ATP World Tour 250 series event and held his opening serve in the second game to level the scores by 1-1. He kept his winning ways throughout the set and held his remaining serves plausibly.
He faced zero breakpoint but on the other hand, he failed to convert the two breakpoint opportunity he founded and took the set into a tie-breaker. Lu was all over the court in the tie-breaker and eventually clinched the opener with a 7-6(2) victory.
Despite committing more double faults and unforced errors, he clobbered a higher first serve share of 66 percent as compared to Nieminen’s 56 percent and registered an impressive 69 percent win on it.
The Taipei kept his spirit high in the final set and held his serve in the first game to take the lead by 1-0. He kept his remaining serves through quick forehands and backhands from his box of tricks and converted the only breakpoint
opportunity to his advantage in the eighth game to seal the final set by winning six games to three.
Lu raised his level of game in the final set and produced a much better first serve share of 84 percent as opposed to Fin’s 67 percent and earned an amazing 77 percent win on it. He again faced zero breakpoint and smacked four
aces to spice the set.
He will next face the winner of the match between Germans, wild card Dustin Brown and sixth seed Florian Mayer.
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