Rafael Nadal’s countryman, Nicolas Almagro, has reached the semi final round of the ongoing German Open by defeating Juan Monaco of Argentina on Friday. Almagro won the match in three sets by 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
It was a fine performance by Almagro who has been given the third seed in this tournament. He didn’t have the best of starts but, he turned things around quite brilliantly.
It took Almagro just less than 2 hours to knock his opponent out of the tournament.
This was the 9th match between these two players and Almagro defeated Monaco for the 6th time.
Talking to the reporters in the post match interview, Almagro said, “I didn’t play that well today to be honest. I made too many unforced errors especially in the first set. I will have to improve.”
Almagro had a terrible start in the first set as he dropped his serve in the very first game. However, he managed to level the scores by breaking his opponent back in the 4th game.
The next 4 games went with the serve and at the end of the 8th game; the scores were levelled at 4-4.
Almagro lost his serve again in the 9th game to give Monaco a lead of 5-4. The Argentinean player easily served out the next game and clinched the set.
In the second set, Almagro came back in style. He didn’t let Monaco win even one game as he secured a bagel to drag the match into the third set.
In the decider, Almagro seemed to be losing the plot again as he dropped his serve in the 3rd game and got down by 1-2. But, he lifted his game at the right time. By hitting some glorious shots, he bagged 5 out of the next 6 games to win the match.
In the semi final round, Almagro will face Fabio Fognini of Italy.