Michael Berrer plods away Rajeev Ram in opening qualifier round – Dubai Championship 2012
American tennis professional, Rajeev Ram, was crushed by the German contender, Michael Berrer, in the opening qualifying round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship on Saturday. The match ended in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
Both players had faced-off once before this encounter. It was the opening qualifying round of Indian Wells 2009; Berrer managed a close escape in an epic three-setter but this time he managed to squeeze past Ram with ease.
The fifth seed German started the proceedings in stylish fashion, smashing a couple of aces in his opening serve game. The see-saw battle continued at the hard courts of Decoturf II in Dubai before the German broke his opponent’s serve in the sixth game
and took a two games lead with scores moving 4-2.
Ram looked good throughout the contest but was not able to win the break back in order to level the score. He lost the opening set and to his despair; twisted his ankle at the end of it. It probably doubled his frustration and never lowered his motivation
to pull up an upset.
The American lost the opening serve game to his opponent. However, he fought back to oust his opponent in the fourth game; registering his first breakthrough in the match. Unfortunately, he could not keep the scores together and lost the serve game following
a successful breakpoint that reinstated the lead of his opponent.
Berrer doubled the lead with a successful serve hold and kept it intact until the end of the set. Ram was under a lot of pressure and served to stay in the ninth game of the second set but lost it and another opportunity to make a mark went in vain.
In the other contest on the same day, the third seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan ousted the local wild-card entrant, Abbas Hamad Janahi, to book a date with the winner of this match, Berrer. Both players will lock horns on Sunday to contest for the place in the
main draw of the contest starting Monday. It is expected to be a close battle than this particular match.
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