Fernando Verdasco ousts Pablo Andujar in 2nd round – German Tennis Championships 2011
At an All-Spanish showdown on Wednesday at the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011, Fernando Verdasco effectively eliminated Pablo Andujar in an exciting two set victory. Pablo Andujar had been in the limelight recently
following his performance at Stuttgart and was cited as the eventual winner in many match previews. The match that lasted for almost one hour and twenty six minutes saw a flurry of frenzied breakpoints, a staggering 11 total in just two sets. Verdasco now
proceeds to the next round of the tournament in Hamburg.
Eighth seed Verdasco made his sixth appearance at the clay courts in Hamburg. The 22nd ranked player had earlier reached the quarter finals twice, first in 2006 before losing to Jose Acasuso and again in 2008 against
Roger Federer. Verdasco’s opponent is hot on the heels of a successful tour in Stuttgart. The 44th ranked Andujar reached the final at the Mercedes Cup and had been runner up to Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The head to head ranking between the two opponents now rises to 2-1 in Verdasco’s account. Verdasco successfully avenged his defeat in their last match; the two last met at this year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Miami, Florida.
Verdasco straddled the first set with apparent ease breaking Andujar at just 6-2. He registered two all important serve breaks that sent Andujar crumbling. Despite getting 10 first serve points, one more than Verdasco, it was
Andujar’s dismal performance in getting only 3 second serve points (a mere 27%) that cost him the set. Andujar also was unable to deflect almost 50% of the breakpoints that were bombarded towards him. On the contrary, Verdasco successfully won 3 of the 6 breakpoint
situations that he had faced in the entire set and sent his opponent packing.
The second set was par thrilling. The action packed set saw a flurry of fast paced activity with both the players rolling out breakpoints one after another. Verdasco opened the set but was abruptly stopped short by a deftly executed
serve break. He then matched the serve by delivering one himself in the very next game to level the score to 1-1. This furious exchange of serve breaks continued unabated till the very end when Verdasco registered the winning break of serve to seal the set
at 6-3 in his account. This set saw Andujar winning 3 breakpoints, one less than Verdasco’s 4. In the end, Verdasco’s amazing serves at 86% ultimately left Andujar trailing behind.
Verdasco’s third round match is against the unlikely German hero Cedric-Marcel Stebe. A wild card entry, Stebe has showed exceptional poise in taking down Juan Carlos Ferrero and 11th seed Nikolay Davydenko to surge
through to the third round.
Tags: