• ATP Tour

Almagro slips on grass court debut

ESPN staff
June 13, 2011
Nicolas Almagro crashed out of the UNICEF Open © Getty Images
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ATP Tour seedings

Top seed Nicolas Almagro was immediately dumped out of the UNICEF Open on Monday, suffering a shock defeat to Michael Berrer.

Almagro has been in exceptional form this season, already winning three ATP Tour titles in addition to reaching the final in Acapulco. However, all those successes came on clay, and the Spaniard found the grass surface in the Netherlands to be a great leveller as he lost 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4.

There were only two breaks in the entire contest as Almagro fired down 15 aces to stay solid on serve, but he found it difficult to manipulate the lower-bouncing ball as break opportunities stayed at a premium throughout. Berrer actually won fewer points than his rival in the match, but nevertheless did enough to advance after an hour and 38 minutes.

Sixth seed Adrian Mannarino, beaten by Britain's James Ward last week, suffered another defeat at the hands of Nicolas Mahut. Frenchman Mahut was involved in the record tiebreak marathon with John Isner at last year's Wimbledon, but he ended things much quicker against Mannarino, triumphing 7-6(2) 6-3.

The Frenchman will now meet Dmitry Tursunov, who beat Robert Kendrick 6-2 7-6(3), while second seed Marcos Baghdatis overcame a slow start to beat Arnaud Clement 7-6(4) 6-3 .

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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