2011 Australian Open: Tomas Berdych and Stanislas Wawrinka win opening clashes
As play continues at Melbourne Park, most of the seeds have made it through to the next round except for a few early losses of Sam Querry and Nikolay Davydenko, at the first
Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.
Coming from an unsuccessful run at the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open, World number 6, Tomas Berdych started strong in Melbourne on Monday. A top seed in the Chennai event, Berdych
had fallen in the semi-finals when he lost to eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka. The Czech then moved ahead to play at the Kooyong AAMI Classic though he exited in the first round after losing to Davydenko.
Coming into the Grand Slam, Berdych was seeded sixth in the main draw. After the qualifying finals finished on Sunday, Berdych drew against qualifier Marco Crugnola in his
opening clash. Given the disparity in the ranking it did not come as much surprise to anyone when the Czech defeated his opponent in straight sets.
Opening serve, Berdych met with some resistance when the Italian kept the score tied for eight games. However, catching a break in the ninth game, Berdych rushed to win
two successive games securing a 6-4 victory in the first set.
Coming into the second set, Berdych continued his dominance and without a loss of a single set secured a bagel set win in less than thirty minutes.
He moved ahead to wrap his straight set victory with a comfortable 6-2, having enjoyed a 3-0 lead earlier in the set. Berdych struck two aces and lost only twenty of sixty
six points on service (20 of 66) to secure a straight set victory over Crugnola. He also succeeded in converting seven of eleven break points.
Winning the match, Berdych said, “Starting like that, it's always a pretty good start, not to make it quite complicated, just focus since the first points until the last
one.”
Berdych moves on ahead in the event to play German Philipp Kohlschreiber. The latter moves ahead after defeating his compatriot Tobias Kamke, bouncing back from being two
set down. The score line was 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-4.
Joining Berdych in the second round is the 2011 Chennai event winner, Wawrinka. Seeded nineteenth in the draw, Wawrinka drew against Teymuraz Gabashvili.
Winning the toss, Gabashvili opened serve but failed to catch a break. With each player winning games on their service, the match entered a tiebreaker. Breaking the Russian
7-3 in the tiebreaker after an hour long set, Wawrinka established his dominance. Maintaining his form, Wawrinka wrapped up a straight set victory with twin set scores of 6-4, 6-4 in the second and third set.
In a match that lasted two hours and thirty seven minutes, Wawrinka struck eighteen aces, committed ten less unforced errors than his opponent and lost only 41 of 116 points
on service to ensure a straight set victory. Wawrinka moves ahead to play qualifier Grigor Dimitrov later in the event.
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