John Isner outmuscles Nikolay Davydenko to reach round three – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
American number two, John Isner, stomped over the Russian star, Nikolay Davydenko, in a three set mouth-watering match at the Sony Ericsson Open 2012 on Friday. The 10th seed joggled up a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory against Davydenko in the second round of this hard court tournament taking place in Miami, United States.
Coming off from his first ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Masters 1000 final at the BNP Paribas Open last week, Isner kept his spark and bounced over the Ukrainian-born Davydenko. After earning this success, he not only levelled the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 2-2 against the Russian but also advanced into the third round.
The world number 40, Davydenko, made a strong start at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park and kept his serve in the second game to tie the scores at 1-1. After Isner held his serve in the third game, the Russian unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to go on a five-game rampage and sealed the set with a 6-2 win.
Isner, who cracked into the top-ten in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings after bowing out to Roger Federer last weekend, recreated his magic in the second set. He cashed in the only break opportunity in the fourth game and leaped to a 4-1 lead. The American then kept remaining serves, ultimately pulling out the equaliser by winning six games to three.
The 26-year-old carried his winning ways in the final set and earned the desiderated break in the fifth game to win the decider with a 6-4 score line. He again capitalised on the lone break chance and fended off the only breakpoint he faced.
Next challenge for Isner is the 19th seed, Florian Mayer of Germany. The 28-year-old was broken down once but capitalised on three out of eight break chances to pen down a 6-4, 7-5 score line.
The seventh seed, Tomas Berdych, cruised into the third round earlier that day. He crushed the French contender, Nicolas Mahut, with a breadstick to secure this position. The Czech got the better of Mahut for the fourth straight time in one hour and 24 minutes.
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