Kevin Anderson defeats Olivier Rochus in the first round of Mutua Madrid Open
As expected, world number 35, Kevin Anderson of South Africa had an easy victory over Belgian, Olivier Rochus, in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Tuesday. The professional tennis player from South Africa defeated his
opponent in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round of the tournament. The tournament is being played at the clay courts of Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain and will be contested over a period of nine days.
The South African pro started off great and proved to be ultra solid from the baseline for his thirty year old opponent. South African’s great consistency proved to be the difference, though he double faulted four times during
the match. Anderson was mentally too strong for Rochus and never looked in danger after breaking the Belgian’s serve early in the opener. The South African won 66 percent of his service points and saved 100 percent break-points he faced in the first set. Anderson
played tremendously in the first set to suggest that he could take care of his opponent later in the match. Rochus’s serve let him down as he played the break-points poorly and gifted away the first set to his higher ranked opponent with a 2-6 score.
With his effective huge serve and powerful ground strokes, the South African entered the final set. The 6-ft-8 inch Anderson completely took the advantage of his height and hammered seven aces in the set. He scored 16 of 19 points
on his 76 percent first serves whereas his opponent lagged behind with a meager 62 percent. Anderson crafted two break points in the final set while Rochus failed to save any. Moreover Anderson scored 72 percent on service game, 43 percent on return and 58
percent of points in total to clinch the final set with a 6-4 score line.
Anderson will next face Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the second round of the tournament. His next round opponent is living a tennis dream, racking up twenty seven wins without any loss. The Serbian pro, who is undefeated to date,
owns five titles coming into his first clay test of the tournament. He has been installed as a second seed at the tournament and will be facing his South African opponent for the third time. In their latest meeting at the quarterfinal of Miami Masters, the
Serbian pro had then defeated Anderson to even their head-to-head series 1-1.
In other action-packed performances from the day, sixth seed David Ferrer, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez all scored impressive wins against their opponents to reach the third round of the tournament.
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