2011 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship: Berdych beats Davydenko, Gasquet downs Bubka
Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic and Richard Gasquet of France qualified for the quarterfinals of the 2011 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
The Czech defeated world number 39 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-3, 7-6. This was only the second win for Berdych in his eleven career meetings with Davydenko. When these two met last time, at the 2010 ATP World Tour Masters 1000
in Paris, the Russian won the match 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-0.
Davydenko had a good start to the first set and got an early break but Berdych fought back and broke his opponent’s serve twice. The Czech served for the set at 5-3 and easily held it to win the first set 6-3. The world number
7 had a low first serve percentage, still he was able to save four of the five break points he faced.
Second set was a thriller which saw both players trying their best to secure a break. Davydenko came close to it, when Berdych was serving on 4-5, and had two set points but the Czech managed to save both to level the set at 5-5.
Berdych broke the Russian in the next game and had a chance to serve out the match at 6-5. However, the Russian broke back immediately to take the set to a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Berdych got a match point at 6-5 and hit a fit serve to seal the match
in straight sets. He hit two aces and won 80% of the points on his first serve. The match lasted for an hour and forty three minutes.
Berdych will play German Philipp Petzschner in the quarterfinals, who defeated his compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round.
Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet of France had a relatively easy win over his Ukrainian opponent Sergei Bubka. The French defeated the Ukrainian in straight sets, winning the match 6-2, 7-5.
Gasquet broke his opponent twice in the first set. He served for the set at 5-2 and held to win the opening set 6-2. Gasquet faced two break points in the first set but saved both of them.
In the second set, the Ukrainians aggressive approach helped him to take a 5-2 lead but the French bounced back to win next five games and won the set 7-5.
"He played well in the start of the second set. I got more pressure. He played with a lot of big shots," said Gasquet. "And, me, I played maybe too slow. I played a bad game at 1-Love for him in the second.”
Bubka, who is ranked 342nd in the world and needed a wild card even to play the qualifying event, said after the match, “I’m really happy that I’ve played these players and managed to compete with them. I had
my chances, which really gives me high hopes for the rest of the season.”
Gasquet will face his compatriot Gilles Simon in the quarterfinals.
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