Kevin Anderson stuns Andy Roddick in opening round – China Open 2011
Former US Open champion Andy Roddick crashed out of 2011 China Open after he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of South African tennis pro Kevin Anderson 6-4, 7-5 on Monday at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.
This was Roddick’s first round exit on the Association of Tennis Professional’s tour in this season. The American professional was furious at his very ordinary effort and he clearly was disturbed with the outcome of the match.
Roddick relies heavily on his big serves to hold on to his service games. However, his serves were not up to the standard against Anderson as he was broken at regular intervals in a match that lasted for only 1 hour and 42 minutes.
At the age of 29, Roddick has not been able to give consistent results over the last few seasons. The American has been criticized immensely for relying too much on his service. Just over a month ago, he was demolished in the quarterfinal
by Rafael Nadal. And now another failure on the tour means that he will have to regroup himself very quickly to avoid further disappointments.
Roddick managed to hit only 5 serve aces in the match. Although he hit 72 per cent of his first serves, the quality of his serves in general was not up the mark as he suffered four breaks of serve in the match. Converting only
seven out of eighteen points on his second serve, he was always asking for trouble. Making unforced errors at crucial stages of the match, he let the challenger take control of the situation.
Anderson, on the other hand, kept his composure and he showed a great mental ability and temperament to wrap the contest in straight sets. Although he suffered a serve break early in the opening set, he made a double break of serve
to clinch the opener.
Playing with confidence and aggressions, Anderson continued to impress in the following set as well. After both players broke each other once, the set entered a very gripping phase with the game score tied at 5-5. Andersons stepped
up to break the serve and then he held on to his serve game comfortably to close out the match. Ranked 31st in the world, Anderson will be looking to continue playing aggressively in the upcoming matches as well.
Anderson now moves on ahead to play Spaniard Albert Montanes in the second round. Montanes moved on ahead after doing away with Chilean Paul Capdeville in twin 6-3 sets.
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