Brian Baker downs Rui Machado to reach the round of 64 – Wimbledon Championships 2012
USA’s comeback hero, Brian Baker, continued his amazing run of upset wins, beating the world number 96, Rui Machado of Portugal, in straight sets 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-0 in the opener at the Wimbledon Championships in London on Tuesday.
The American needed one hour and 54 minutes to complete a one-sided victory over his Portuguese opponent.
Baker, who was considered the future hope of American tennis at one time, suffered recurring injuries at the start of his career, which stopped him from playing tennis for few years. At an age of 27 years now, the American is making
a tremendous come back. After winning a couple of future and challenger events at the start of this year, he qualified for the main draw of Open de Nice Côte d’Azur and went on to reach the title match.
Talking about this opening round match at the Wimbledon Championships, Baker and Machado served remarkably well in the first set, as they did not allow each other to claim a break till the end, levelling the score at 6-6 and taking
it to a tie-breaker. The American captured five of the last six points to close it 7-6(2).
Baker struck in the third game of the second set and consolidated on it to go up 3-1. The American grabbed second break of serve in the seventh to increase his lead to 5-2 but Machado pulled one back in the following game and held
the next one to reduce the deficit to 4-5. Baker dropped only one point in the subsequent game and clinched it 6-4.
The American played almost flawlessly in the third set, as he did not allow the Portuguese to claim even a single game during the entire proceedings, winning it 6-0.
Baker said, "I'm excited for sure to get to the second round. It's my first [senior] Wimbledon, and I thought we both started kind of slow, just sort of felt our way out. I was fortunate to play a decent breaker and get through
that, and then I felt like I loosened up a bit. Started getting in more of his return games, was able to step up and put a little more pressure on his serve. That obviously allowed me to win the way I did the last two sets. “
He added, “I'd be lying if I sat here and said that I expected all this to happen right now when I was going through all those surgeries.”
The American is drawn to play Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the second round.
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