Almagro stronger than Hewitt
Nicolas Almagro, No.3 seed in the tournament and ranked 12 in the world, is through to the semi-final in the If Stockholm Open after victory against Lleyton Hewitt, 6-1, 6-4. The Australian player had a tough time keeping up with the Spanish’s pressure from the baseline.
Hewitt begun the match with a passive game, which enabled Almagro to quickly get a 5-0 lead. Almagro showed continuously why his one-handed backhand is one of the Tour’s best. The second set started off like the first one.
Almagro broke Hewitts serve immediately and looked like he was going to a given victory. Hewitt managed to bounce back, but at 4-4 Almagro broke the Australian’s serve again and then held serve to win the match.
This week, Almagro is fighting to get important points to qualify to the ATP-play offs in London in three weeks. In the upcoming semifinals he will play the winner of this evening’s match between Mikhail Youzhny and Tomas Berdych.