Gonzalez Beats Busta

David Nalbandian’s countryman, Maximo Gonzalez, has defeated Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain in the first round of ATP Kitzbuhel which is taking place in Austria.

Busta was given 8th seed in this tournament and he was supposed to emerge victorious against a qualifier like Gonzalez, but, it wasn’t to be.

It was not a mere defeat. It was a hammering, an embarrassing result for Busta. Yes, he managed to win a set, but, he never looked better than his opponent.

Busta got trailed by 0-3 in the first set and couldn’t manage to wipe out that deficit ever after that. The start was poor for him in the following set too and it seemed that he might be losing in the straight sets, but, he bounced back with a couple of breaks to seal that set and equalize the proceedings.

But, in the decider, Gonzalez was dominant again as he clinched the match in style with 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 score line.

Gonzalez, who is an experienced player now having spent quite a few years in the professional circuit, is presently at the 83rd position in the World rankings. Busta is 28 places ahead of him at no. 55.

Apart from Busta, the only other seeded player who was in action yesterday in Kitzbuhel was Dominic Thiem. He was up against the Brazilian player Joao Souza.

That match was also a three setter, but, there was no upset there as Thiem pulled it off to move ahead in the tournament.

The 20-year old Austrian had actually put himself in trouble by serving quite a few double faults in the earlier parts of the match, but, he made up for that later on with superb winners.

Thiem is the 5th seeded player in the tournament. He is the 50th ranked player in the world.

Murray Just Scrapes Victory

Yesterday, the Rolland Garros could have seen one more big upset. Philipp Kohlschreiber had almost pushed Andy Murray to the verge of defeat. The Scot eventually managed to come out of that situation though. He showed tremendous fighting spirit in the final set to get through to the pre quarter final round.

The final score line of the match was 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 in the favour of Murray.

The match actually started yesterday, but, it couldn’t get completed. It had to be stopped because of bad light when both the players were tied at 7-7 in the fifth set. It started again today in the morning and Murray, with some delightful shots, didn’t waste too much time in pulling it off.

Speaking in the post match interview, Murray said, “I was struggling with a bit of cramp towards the end of yesterday, but, I felt alright when I got off the bed today. I came out fresh and thankfully, finished things off well.”

“That’s the difference between the grass court and the hard court. If you play a match on hard court, you don’t feel that good when you wake up the other day. Your body will be quite sore. But, that’s not the case with grass court.”

“I think Philipp was also looking better today. Some of his shots were quite remarkable.”

The match that went Murray’s way at the end could have gone Kohlschreiber’s way as well if he had converted the break point that he got in the 19th game, but, he wasted that opportunity and that proved to be the difference.

Now, Murray will get a couple of days’ break before he takes on Fernando Verdasco in his next match on Monday. Verdasco reached the pre quarter finals by defeating Richard Gasquet of France.