Fernando Verdasco drives Michael Llodra out of the second round – Western & Southern Open 2011
World number 21, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, won his encounter against the 32nd ranked Frenchman, Michael Llodra, in the second round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, on Wednesday afternoon.
The competition was staged on the outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, the Spaniard taking down 31-year-old French veteran in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Unseeded in the tournament, Verdasco took one hour and nineteen minutes of play to oust Llodra from the competition and advanced to the round of 16 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series event.
The Spaniard finally avenged his defeat which he suffered last year at the hands of Llodra in Davis Cup play offs, falling to the French 7-6(5), 4-6, 3-6, 6-7(2), in the Round Robin stage. Verdasco registered his 28th victory of the running ATP season and levelled the all-time head-to-head series against Llodra at 2-2.
Llodra served very well in the matchup but was outdone by the amazing points winning proficiency of the unseeded Spaniard. Verdasco delivered 73 per cent of his serve on target and reeled off 31 out of 47 first serve points in the matchup to come out as the winner. He denied Llodra off break points on three out of four different occasions in the matchup and stung three out of six serve breaks en route to victory
The contest remained pretty one-sided, with Spanish prevailing throughout. A total of 127 points were played in the matchup, with Verdasco clinching 70 and Llodra lagging behind with 57 points to lose the game.
Verdasco broke his opponent’s serve in the very first game of the matchup to lead 2-0 and then kept holding his serve all the way. Llodra failed to recover from the early damage done by the serve break and eventually submitted the first set to the belligerent Spaniard at 4-6. Verdasco kept his impetus in the second set as well and broke the Frenchman in the opening game once again.
Llodra finally registered his first serve break of the in the sixth game, only to be broken again in the very next game to trail 3-5. Verdasco convincingly served out of the matchup at 6-4, booking a place in the second third round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters.
The ultimate challenge for Verdasco awaits him in the third round, when he will go one-on-one with the former world number one, Rafael Nadal, for a place in the quarter-finals. Second seeded Nadal won his second round matchup against Julien Benneteau of France in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, to reach the round of 16 on Wednesday.
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