2010 BNP Paribas Masters: Review of Wednesday Afternoon Session
Wednesday afternoon at Palais Omnisports, Bercy saw four more second round matches as eight professionals battled it out to remain in the title run. Although, the seeds won most of the matches, we did see a seed ousting at the
end of the session.
23 year old Brit icon, Andy Murray kicked off his Paris run as he met Argentinean David Nalbandian for their round of thirty-two match on Wednesday. Having already qualified for the finals at London, he is free from the “qualification
pressure”. A title win here will not only add to his laurel, but will also be a befitting end to a superb season. Having exited Valencia in the second round only, Murray was probably not in form for his first match here in Paris, which is why he suffered a
minor setback losing the first set to Nalbandian. However, Murray bounced back in the second set and won the next two sets to seal victory for himself. In a match that lasted for about two hours, Murray served eighteen aces and lost only twenty-two points
on service to ensure he moved on into the third round. Murray goes on to face Croat Marin Cilic in a seeded battle later on in the event.
2010 Vienna titlist, Jurgen Melzer made a strong start to ensure his stay in the Paris title run. He needs a title desperately to finish in the top eight in the year-to-date ATP rankings for the London finals. Melzer faced Colombian
qualifier Santiago Giraldo and managed an easy win in the first set, winning it 6-3. He met with some resistance in the second set as Giraldo upped his performance. Giraldo, after much painstaking efforts, managed to take the second set into a tiebreaker.
Even in the tiebreaker, Giraldo would not accept defeat, whose inevitability was now in question. The two professionals went at it neck to neck, with neither getting a break until twelve points. It was only at 6-6 that Melzer caught a break and managed to
win two consecutive points to win the set (8)7-6(6). Melzer will next face Spaniard David Ferrer later in the event.
Russian Nikolay Davydenko cruised past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci with a straight set win of 6-3, 6-0 to move ahead into the event. Tenth seed Davydenko managed to seal victory for himself in fifty-six minutes. Davydenko will face
fifth seed Tomas Berdych later in the event.
Local Michael Llodra became the last unseeded player to make it to the third round. Llodra moves into the third round after having defeated fifteenth seeded American John Isner. Capitalizing on the home court advantage, Llodra
managed to seal victory for himself in sixty minutes. Having served fourteen aces and losing only ten points on service Llodra glided past the American with a 6-3, 6-4 win. Llodra drew Serbian icon Novak Djokovic in the third round. Llodra will have to play
“extra well” against the Serb if he hopes to remain in the title run.
With eight matches done for the day, seeds seem to be dominating the scoreboard and with the likes of Roger Federer and Robin Soderling still to come, it is unlikely that any more seed ousting for the day will be witnessed.
Tags: