2010 BNP Paribas Masters; Highlights from Tuesday
The Czech tennis ace Tomas Berdych started his tournament’s campaign at the 2010 BNP Paribas Masters Men’s singles competition on Tuesday with a two-setter win over Florent Serra, a wild card entrant in Paris. The final match score
was 6-3, 6-1. Tomas closed out the battle in just forty-seven minutes to make his way into the round three of the competition.
The 25-year-old Tomas is currently ranked number six in the South African Airways ATP list and is next in line to grab one of the coveted eight places at the year finale, which is to be held in London from 21-28 November. He is
attempting to qualify in the elite eight-man field on the very first occasion in his career.
Tomas, who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 2002, has struggled to find his top form since advancing into the quarterfinal round in Toronto where he was defeated by world number two Roger Federer back in August. He
comes in with a win-loss mark of 4-9 on the season.
However, in a superb serving display, the grass court Grand Slam finalist lost only one point in serve versus Serra and broke serve on four occasions from five chances to dispatch the world number 73 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the 2009 runner up Gael Monfils was tested in his first clash, overpowering Benjamin Becker of Germany in two sets to confirm his place in the third round of the last ATP World Tour Masters 1000 competition of the season.
The final score line was 7-6(4), 6-4.
The professional tennis player from France who finished as finalist to Novak Djokovic back in 2009, trailed 1-5 in the first set before battling back to survive in a tiebreaker. He next broke serve decisively during the seventh
game of the following set to seal win in the end. The battle stretched over a period of one hour and fifty minutes.
The 24-year-old Gael, who captured his third career ATP World Tour trophy in Montpellier after getting the better of Ivan Ljubicic few days ago, paid tribute to the spectators, “I just do not know how I managed to win that opening
set. I was down 4-0. A long time ago I would have given up. This time, I do not know what happened. However at the same time, I must say the crowd was very helpful. They were nice with me, and it was good for me. I believe later I calmed down. I tried to
be less aggressive and put the ball into the court.”
Elsewhere, Gilles Simon of France also fought hard to earn his spot in the round two, brushing aside his Kazakhstani opponent Andrey Golubev in three sets on Tuesday. The final match score was 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. The match lasted for
a time of one hour and forty-four minutes.
"I think what I did today was the best I could do. I continued to jump around, to keep warm. I did not think too much about things. I did not get annoyed when I was down. I saw his game was hitting hard, and I know players like
this can hit hard and put the ball in the court for five matches in a row. However I knew that I had to continue fighting, and that he would start making mistakes at one stage. And in the end that is what happened,” declared Simon after his victory.
As a result of this victory, the former world number six Simon, who is coming off his semi final showing in Valencia where he was toppled by Granollers, has improved his match record to 23-16 on the season. The 25-year-old recently
captured his seventh career ATP World Tour crown at the indoor hard-court tennis competition in Metz, beating Mischa Zverev. He will next meet the fourth seed Robin Soderling of Sweden.
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