Kubot/Stepanek crush Kohlmann/Petzschner in second round – Tokyo Open 2011
The Pole Czech tandem of Lukasz Kubot and Radek Stepanek destroyed Germans, Michael Kohlmann and Philipp Petzschner, with a breadstick at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, an ATP World Tour 500 series event held at the
hard courts in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. They registered a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the Germans to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The high flying Polish Czech duo required only forty-six minutes to triumph over Kohlmann and Petzschner on their first meeting. After earning this straight set victory, the beaming pair advanced into the last eight of this event.
Kubot and Stepanek stormed into the opening set at the Ariake Coliseum. After the Germans held their opening serve in the second game, Kubot and Stepanek released flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next five games in a row to
earn a breadstick. They faced zero breakpoint and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to their advantage.
The blissful Polish Czech team carried their winning ways in the final set and got the first blood in the opening game to take the initial lead. They perfected their co-ordination to bag in their entire serves and eventually clinched
the set with a 6-4 score line. Kubot and Stepanek warded off both breakpoints faced and capitalised on one out of four breakpoint opportunities to their advantage.
Next up for the Pole – Czech tandem is the Brazilian duo of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares who upset the top seeds, Indian Rohan Bopanna and Pakistani Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in straight sets to set-up this clash.
The seed displayed dismal performance and despite having acceptable stats, they suffered an opening round exit in an hour and nine minutes long match.
The highest ranked team of Bopanna and Qureshi founded five breakpoint opportunities in the opening set and converted one to their advantage. However, they could only save one out of three breakpoints faced and subsequently suffered
a 4-6 loss.
The Indo Pak Express again broke the Brazilians serve once but failed to defend two out of six breakpoints came across. They also clobbered a lower first serve share and earned an acceptable 57 percent win on it.
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