Philipp Kohlschreiber hopes to catch Mission Impossible 4
while in Auckland this week but this week's mission at the
Heineken Open is far from impossible.
The German eighth seed has an enviable record in Auckland.
His 4-6 6-4 6-3 win over American wildcard Ryan Harrison saw
him advance to the quarter-finals at Stanley St for the
seventh time in eight visits and it's a record matched only
on the ATP Tour by his feats at Halle in Germany.
He's won the tournament once (2008), played in the 2010
semifinal and reached the quarter-finals five times. The only
time he failed to make the last eight was in 2005.
"It's pretty good, I guess,'' Kohlschreiber said with a smile
of his record at the Heineken Open. "I always enjoy coming
here.
"The centre court is great. It's a loose atmosphere and even
the people drink beer and get food. It's something special.
The people have a positive attitude to the sport and it gives
me great energy and makes me play great tennis.''
He will need to maintain his form in the next round tomorrow
against second seed and world No 10 Nicolas Almagro, who
waltzed past last year's beaten semifinalist Santiago Giraldo
6-4 6-2. That's assuming the Almagro who can be one of the
world's best players turns up, and not the one who left
Auckland in 2010 facing accusations of tanking.
Either way, Kohlschreiber rates his chances.
"Almagro is a very hard hitter,'' he said. "[He's a] big
server, very hard hitter. It's tough. You have to handle his
power shots and you have to run a lot and bring back many
balls to frustrate him to let him overhit the balls. But I
think I have a good chance on hard courts.''
Kohlschreiber was largely in control against Harrison today
even though he lost the first set. He dictated the tempo of
the match as he started to read Harrison's serve better,
peppering the American's backhand and mixing things up by
coming to the net.
He took an early lead in the third set and served out the
match in two hours against a player tipped to be America's
`next big thing'.
"He has many years in front of him,'' Kohlschreiber said. "If
I stopped now I know what he could do to improve but I will
be quiet. He's already come far for his age.''
Almagro will be a more difficult proposition. The tempestuous
Spaniard couldn't get off the court fast enough in the hope
of finishing his match in case rain interrupted, even
changing ends with little break and showing his frustration
when patrons were still milling about.
He won the second set in little over 30 minutes on the back
of a strong serve (he won 86 per cent of points on his serve)
and powerful forehand and didn't face one break point.
"I'm happy but tomorrow is another fight and I'll see what
can I do,'' he said. "Philipp is a great player on this
surface. He has a very nice backhand and he is serving very
well, too. I'll need to play my best tennis.''
Kohlschreiber played plenty in 2011, winning three titles and
playing in another two finals, but all of his 10 titles have
been on clay.
He will hope winning on a different surface isn't his mission
impossible.
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