Matthew Ebden slays Philip Davydenko to enter round two – Proton Malaysian Open 2012
Australian challenger, Matthew Ebden, devastated the Russian wild card entrant, Philip Davydenko, with a bagel at the Proton Malaysian Open 2012 on Tuesday. He jolted down a 6-0, 7-6(3) victory against the 20-year-old to power
into the second round at this indoor hard court event taking place in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The South African-born Ebden barely sweated in the opening set and ultimately pulled out the victory in one hour and 17 minutes against Davydenko, who was playing his first tour-level match. Battling each other for the first time,
Ebden edged in the FedEx ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head Series by 1-0 against the world number 1066 and secured a place in the round of 16 at the Putra Stadium.
Ebden unleashed his true colours after entering this ATP World Tour 250 Series event. He reeled off six games in a row through exquisite forehands from his box of tricks. The Aussie swiped his entire serves without facing any hindrance
and capitalised on three out of eight break chances to pull out the opener with a bagel.
Ranked 64th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Ebden cruised into the following set and wiped out the opening three games in a row before Davydenko could come on the score sheet. He lost his concentration
afterwards and gifted away his serves twice to trail at 5-6. However, the Aussie superbly recovered in the last game and took the set to a tie-breaker. He jumped to a 4-1 lead in it before closing the set with a 7-6(3) success.
The Durban native clobbered a slightly higher first serve share of 64 per cent as compared to his rival’s 62 per cent and impressively marked 29 out of 34 points on it. He smashed three aces and availed five out of 13 break chances
to earn the fame.
Ebden will face off the seventh seed, Julien Benneteau from France. He dumped the Argentinean contestant, Carlos Berlocq, in straight sets to set up this meeting. The French seed was broken twice but capitalised on four out of
five break chances to pocket the match.
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