Mardy Fish beats Ricardo Mello and cruises to the quarter-finals at the Delray Beach International
Second seed Mardy Fish of the United States defeated Ricardo Mello in the second round of the Delray Beach International Championships on Thursday night. Fish crushed his Brazilian opponent in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the quarter-final of the tournament.
The one-sided affair lasted for barely 55 minutes. The second seed exhibited his sheer dominance over his competitor and completely blew him away with his excellent tennis. Mello appeared to be completely off his game in the match against the American.
Pre-match commentators predicted that the left-handed angling serve of Mello would cause some serious troubles for his opponent. The troubles for Fish never materialized and the Brazilian only delivered 44 per cent of his first serve and took 50 percent
of his first serve points in the competition. Five double-faults in the match made his serve statistics even worse.
Fish dominated the affair with his powerful serve and accurate timing. The American got 67 per cent of his first serve on target and secured 28 out of 36 of the total serve points in the match. He cracked eight fiery aces in the contest whereas his rival
merely hit one. Fish only dropped eight points on his serve throughout the game.
Fish did not meet much resistance from Mello, who lost his nerve from the opening serve. His serve was bleak and his footwork was stiff. He unable to craft a single chance to break the opponent’s serve, instead dropped his serve five times in the match.
The American had an aggressive start to the game and stung a serve break in the very first game of the match. He took the reins of the game in his hand and orchestrated most of the rallies in the set. Fish cashed in most of his opportunities and won 25 points
in the set.
A crucial serve break at 4-1 put the American in a commanding position. Fish served out comprehensively from the opening set at 6-2, leading the contest by 1-0.
Mello’s poor run continued in the preceding set as well. The Brazilian only held his serve in his first serve game and was broken in the rest of his games. His opponent won 80 per cent of his first serve points and never faced a break chance. Fish got six
opportunities to break the opposite serve but converted only three. The American never faced a challenge from his opponent and eased out of the second set at 6-1.
Out of a total of 81 points in the match, Fish won 53 while Mello took just 28. A comprehensive victory sends Fish into the quarter-finals, where he will be squaring off against the winner of the match between the eighth seed Adrian Mannarino and the Columbian
qualifier Alejandro Falla.
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