Spanish Fiesta a joy for Almagro

Today on Hisense we were privileged to witness one of the biggest names in men's tennis - Daniel Gimeno-Traver, at eleven letters and a hyphen significant amongst the surnames in the Aus Open draw. His equally Spanish opponent and 11th seed Nicolas Almagro, began as favourite and also had first crack at the serving thing.

Almagro has made the fourth round here in the past three attempts, so wants desperately to finish his obligations at Melbourne Park later in the second week this time round.  G-T is hoping for fifth time lucky just to sneak into round two.

Daniel began by breaking the Almagro serve after a few chances - the baseline rallies punctuated by virtually no action anywhere near the net required only a clay surface and it could have been Barcelona.
After making no impression on the Gimerno-Traver serve except perhaps a bad one, Nicolas finally found his range to make it a 1-2 deficit.  During this game he surprisingly ventured to the net, but was frightened when the shot came back at him, so I dare say he won't try that trip again for several months.
G-T continued on his merry way without conceding points on serve and the seeded player struggled once more to remain in touch scratchily reaching 2-3.

Almagro stormed back into a contention of which he was never really out,  highlighted by a winning backhand down the line and lowlighted by 2 double faults from Daniel.  The break back having been achieved, Nicolas proceeded with the diligence for which he is renowned and led the match at last 4-3.  The most attractive shot for me in the Almagro armoury is his single handed backhand, a shot too seldom chosen by players today who don't consider ascetics over practicalities.
Daniel kept at the task and stayed on serve including the use of a nicely executed drop shot to add some variety, while Almagro produced another stunning backhand to accentuate his desire to take a 5-4 advantage into the key tenth game.

At 30-40 set point was averted with an Almagro mistake but the set was over with two successive double faults in one of the most anti climactic moments of the tournament. 6-4 to the 11th seed.

Almagro served well enough to launch his second set bid, and immediately put energies into destroying his opponent.  With his error count rising as quickly as his personal anguish, Daniel could not make inroads into the rallies as he'd been able to at the beginning.  2-0 and a rapidly improving Almagro service to arrive.  Another service break came in the fourth game and this appeared to be more than just a form slump - confirmed after Almagro served for 5-0 and Gimerno-Traver left the court for a medical time-out,  specifically to what part of the Spanish player unknown.
He came back to court with most parts of his body seeming to be in the same places as they were before his treatment.
A game was posted against the lower ranked Spaniard prior to Almagro completing the niceties and serving out for a two set lead 6-4 6-1.  Consistency the key for opening the lock on the door out of this match, and perhaps the same method of entry to later rounds.  That key alone would not open a quarter final door however.

Any fleeting thoughts of an historic recovery were put to bed with the kids as Nicolas broke Daniel in the first game of Set 3.  Comfortable travels for the remainder with a chance to fine tune a game that will hopefully put Almagro back into the top ten but more importantly bring him a first major title.
6-4 6-1 6-2