Same procedure as last year! Roberto Bautista Agut, like last year,is through to the Quarter-Finals at the GERRY WEBER OPEN. The No. 4 seeded Tournament winner at Auckland and Dubai won in the first Round of Sixteen match against Robin Haase from the Netherlands 6:4, 7:5. Last year Bautista Agut lost to Alexander Zverev in three sets in the round of the remaining eight.
For the Spaniard it is only the second Tournament after his mother dies just a few weeks ago. The mental strain of the last couple of days wasn't shown by the favourite at all. With stoic calmness he played his set task from the baseline, caught up Robin Haase again and again in long baseline-duels and mostly was more persevering. Though Haase answerde "RBA"'s first break, but when it mattered, he wasn't able to subend the Iberians' powerful game. The GERRY WEBER Team player form BW Halle, who plays in the German league, lost his fifth service and with that also the first set (4:6). Bautista Agut only had three unforced errors at this time - Haase had 14.
In the 2nd set Haase was showing his class more often, but still the 30 year old from Castellon de la Plana dominated the well worth seeing match most of the time - even if he made a lot more mistakes in the 2nd set. The Dutchman worked out the first break chances, but when it came to the "big points" the World' s No. 16 played his best tennis. Haase couldn't take Bautista Agut's service four times and failed it the most unfortunate moment. The Spanish David Cup player speeded up again towards the end of the set, got more and more aggressive and already in the first match point shot a presice backhand stout-heartedly.
"I probably played a little better in the 1st than in the 2nd set. But I enjoy playing here in Halle. It's unbelievably good fun in front of such a good audience", "RBA" stated.
