Match report

Albert Montanes © Tennistalk.com
Open Sabadell Atlántico 2008
Quarter final
5/2/08 1 2 3 Tot
es  Albert Montanes 3 7 8 4 1
ch  Stanislas Wawrinka 6 6 6 6 2
Stanislas Wawrinka © Tennistalk.com

  • Gritty Wawrinka makes semis once again

    5/3/08 12:11 PM | David Cox
    Stanislas Wawrinka battled past a passionate home crowd and Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-4 in nearly 3 hours to make his 2nd Barcelona semi-final

    Wawrinka seems to be a lot mentally tougher this year and it was a gritty performance, he showed a lot of belief inmanaging to win after missing match point in the 2nd set and losing a 5-2 3rd set lead.

    After his demolition of Nalbandian on Thursday, a similar scoreline was predicted against Montanes and it appeared to be heading that way when Wawrinka rolled through the first set, his backhand firing on all cylinders.

    However Montanes is a crafty grinder who’s frustrated a lot of opponents over the years and inspired by vocal home support he started to make some unbelievable shots in the second set. He served for it at 5-4 but Wawrinka broke back to force a tiebreak. Montanes was 3-0 up with the 2 minibreaks but lost 4 straight points and was match point down at 5-6 but Wawrinka couldn’t take it and Montanes managed to force a decider.

    Once your level slips in a match it can be very hard to regain it and the 3rd looked set to be a real battle but once Wawrinka had held a lengthy first game it was one-way traffic and he broke and established a 5-2 lead. Surely the match was all but over. However, he failed to close it out at 5-3 and it was back on serve. Montanes though still had to serve to stay in the match and he was unable to do that. Wawrinka forced a 2nd match point at 30-40 and it was Montanes who erred first in a lengthy backhand cross-court rally

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es  Albert Montanes ch  Stanislas Wawrinka
Open Sabadell Atlántico 2008  Open Sabadell Atlántico 2008