Jurgen Melzer labours past Denis Kudla in his season-opener – Brisbane International 2013
Former top-tenner, Jurgen Melzer, had to battle his way through a stiff three-setter before registering his first victory of the 2013 season at the outdoor hard courts of Brisbane. The seventh seeded Austrian laboured hard for
one hour and 46 minutes to wrap up his victory with the final score line of 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, against the American, Denis Kudla, to clear the opening round of Brisbane International tournament on Tuesday.
Melzer was off to a very sloppy start in the contest and let plenty of opportunities to his lower ranked opponent o get on top. Kudla came out roaring in the opener and broke the Austrian serve in the second game to lead 2-0 right
away. Melzer retaliated immediately with a cracking break of serve in the very next game and levelled down the score line to 2-2 with s serve hold. Things seemed under his control for the next two games before the American launched his onslaught, breaking
Melzer twice in succession and sealing the first set at 6-2.
A more conventional start to the second set witnessed both players holding their initial three serves to square the scores at 3-3. Melzer finally showed his class in the seventh game and broke into a 4-3 lead. His opponent couldn’t
reply with any further break points in the rest of the set and eventually submitted at 4-6.
The decisive set witnessed exactly the similar sort of score pattern as the second one. No break points were seen in the opening six games and Melzer broke his opponent once again in the seventh game to lead 4-3. The seventh seeded
Austrian comprehensively served out of the match at 5-4 to book a spot in the round of 16 at the Brisbane International.
Melzer delivered 70 per cent of his first serve on target and clinched 40 out of 55 points on it. Kudla and Melzer registered three break points apiece in the match but the Austrian nailed his breakthroughs at the most crucial
moments of the game to come out as the deserving winner.
Up next for Melzer is the Belgian contestant, David Goffin, in the second round of the tournament.
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