2011 French Open: Stephane Robert upsets Tomas Berdych in first round
Sixth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych lost to French qualifier, Stephane Robert in five sets 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-9 in their first round match at the 2011 Roland Garros on Monday.
Opening play in Court 2 at Stade Roland Garros, Berdych got off to a strong start. Winning a whopping 89% on his first serve, Berdych bagged a total of 28 of 47 points in the match. Successfully converting 100 percent of the breakpoints faced, the Czech was able to clinch a 6-3 win in the first set.
Following the same suit in the second set, the 6-ft 3-in Czech maintained his winning form as he repeated the 6-3 score victory to go 2-0 in the set score.
However, things took a turn for the worse. What earlier seemed like a smooth sail to a straight sets victory, now turned into a fight to stay in the match.
Bouncing back in the third set, cheered on by the local crowd, Robert sent the Czech running all over the court. Securing an early 3-0 lead in the set, the Frenchman extended his dominion over the Czech to clinch 6-2 win for himself.
A charged Frenchman was proving to be very dangerous for the Czech. The fourth set saw even more decimation of the world number six as Robert broke the 2010 Wimbledon finalist twice to clinch an early 4-2 lead which he only extended to 6-2 minutes later, squaring off the set score at 2-2.
The pair entered the deciding fifth set, fully determined to fight it out – after all this was the make it or break it set. Winning games on service, Berdych failed to catch a break keeping the score tied at 2-2. However, the Fates finally smiled down on the hard hitting Czech as he broke the local in the sixth game to secure a 4-2 lead for himself. This was, however, a short-lived happiness for the Czech as Robert soon broke back to level the score at 4-4 and managed to keep it tied for the next four six games. It was only in the fifteenth game that Robert was able to break Berdych and then clinching victory on the sixteenth secured a five set win for himself.
Robert now moves on ahead to play Italian Fabio Fognini in the second round. Fognini defeated Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in his opening clash here on Sunday.
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