Authom eliminates top-seeded Baker

Maxime Authom hits the ball back to opponent Brian Baker during the first set of their match Tuesday at Seascape Sports Club in Aptos. (Glenn Cravens/Register-Pajaronian)

APTOS — Maxime Authom chalked up his first set loss Tuesday afternoon to just a bump in the road. He corrected his mistakes and made his opponent labor.

Meanwhile, Brian Baker became the latest victim of the so-called No. 1 curse at the Comerica Bank Challenger.

Authom defeated Baker 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round, meaning another year will go by with the top seed not winning the tournament.

After a month full of early ATP exits, the Belgian finally found a way to break through and get a win in singles action.

He had to rally to do it, though.

Authom lost not only the first set but started the second set with a game one defeat to Baker in fairly quick fashion. Baker then had 30-15 on Authom in the second game before committing an unforced error to pull the players even. The players traded points, forcing a deuce that was won easily by Authom.

The two winners in deuce seemed to trigger something for Authom, who then won the next two games, allowing just two points total, to suddenly grab a 3-1 lead.

Baker had his chance to gain a break back and pull even in the eighth game. At 30-all, Authom hit a sideline winner that drew a big round of applause. But he couldn’t follow up, and both players faced deuce.

Authom didn’t let Baker get a lead and eventually won on the second deuce to take a 5-3 lead.

On set point for Authom, Baker hit a cross-court return only to see Authom hit it right back to the same spot. Baker couldn’t recover in time, and Authom won the second set.

Authom immediately won the first two games of the third set and built a 5-2 lead thanks to some precision returns that hit the sidelines and corners.



For the complete article see the 08-09-2012 issue.

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