Fernando Gonzalez dispenses out Martin Klizan from the first round of the Serbia Open
Wildcard entrant from Chile, Fernando Gonzalez, cruised through the opening round of the Serbia Open by outclassing the Slovak qualifier, Martin Klizan at Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday. In the contest being played at the Tennis
Center Novak complex, Gonzalez took just one hour and sixteen minutes to wind up his straight sets victory at 6-2, 6-4, to make it to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
Gonzalez made a terrific comeback in the professional tennis arena after an eight-month injury lay off. The Chilean registered his first victory of the current year at Belgrade by ousting the in-form Klizan from the clay-court
event. His serve game lacked something to be desired but his overall performance was very impressive, provided that it was his first appearance in eight months.
The 30-year-old Chilean was greatly assisted by plenty of unforced errors from his opponent. Klizan coughed six double faults in the matchup, with four of them coming in the second set alone, to bestow easy points to Gonzalez.
He had nine opportunities to break his opponent but the bleak Slovak converted just three of them.
The Chilean didn’t have to do much except keeping the ball in court, as Klizan put up an absolutely pathetic performance with the racquet. The Slovak spilled plenty of errant strokes throughout the contest and was found arguing
with the chair umpire most of the time. Klizan conceded 47 unforced errors in the whole matchup and submitted the contest to Gonzalez with a double fault.
Gonzalez had a conservative start to the contest, with a below par serve precision of 44 per cent. He dropped serve once in the opener but his bleak opponent bestowed him with four opportunities to strike a serve break and he converted
three of them to get command of the first set. The Chilean faced no real challenge in serving out of the opener at 6-2 and got one up in the contest.
A more competitive second set was witnessed as the Slovak stung two break points to get into the lead, which he squandered away shortly afterwards. The confident Gonzalez took the benefit of four double faults from Klizan to belt
three serve breaks and wind up the second set at 6-4 to move on to the second round draws of the Serbia Open.
Gonzalez will square off against Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the second round clash on Wednesday evening. Lopez was successful against the eighth seed Argentine, Juan Monaco in the opening round, defeating him in straight sets
6-4, 7-5.
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