Australian Open 2011: Nicolas Almagro, Tomas Berdych march ahead
14th seed Nicolas Almagro equalled his career-best performance at the Australian Open when he made it through to the fourth round on Friday.
Putting in his seventh appearance at the event, Almagro finished 2010 for the first time in the fourth round after losing to eventual semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Playing his third round match at the Melbourne Park on Friday, Almagro met 17th seed Ivan Ljubicic in a seeded battle. A former world number three, Ljubicic has been as far as the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
Meeting for the fifth time on the courts, Almagro was able to reduce his deficit in the career head-to-head record after a straight sets victory over Ljubicic.
In a match that lasted for almost two hours and thirty minutes, Almagro struck five aces and lost only 36 of 110 points on service to secure a three set win over the Croat.
Breaking service once in the opener, the Spaniard was able to secure a comfortable 6-4 victory. Bouncing back in the second set, Ljubicic was able to push the set into a tiebreaker though he suffered an 8-10 defeat after a hard fought battle. Coming into
the third set, Almagro rushed into the lead and clinched the third set 6-3.
Almagro will play third seed Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.
Also making his way into the next round was sixth seed, Tomas Berdych. The rising Czech hit the spotlight when he made it to the final of the 2010 Wimbledon. Hoping to make another trip to a Grand Slam final, Berdych continued his ascent at the Melbourne
Park through an easy victory.
Pitted against French Richard Gasquet, Berdych took just ninety minutes to send the French packing.
Winning the toss, Berdych opened serve and clinched a 6-2 victory before being pushed into a tiebreaker in the second set. However, the hard-hitting Czech was able to secure a 7-3 victory in the tiebreaker before wrapping up the match with a 6-2 win in the
third set.
Berdych will now play either Kei Nishikori or ninth seed Fernando Verdasco in the next round.
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