Michael Ryderstedt upsets Maximo Gonzalez in first round – SkiStar Swedish Open 2011
In another first round match of the day in the SkiStar Swedish Open, the Swede Michael Ryderstedt gave his home crowd a reason to cheer. With an effective 6-4, 2-6 and 6-2 score Ryderstedt secured a berth for himself in the next
round of the tournament and forced the Argentinean Maximo Gonzalez out of the tournament.
Ryderstedt, a debutant at the Davis Cup this year was amongst the three Swedish nationals who were given wild card entries in the singles tournament at the 2011 edition of the Swedish Open. While the Argentinean Gonzalez is currently
ranked at No. 90 in the world and is a seasoned clay specialist. Hence Ryderstedt’s win against him on the clay courts of Bastad is a commendable feat.
Ryderstedt went off to a great start in the first set and his success at serving dealt a severe blow early on in the game to Gonzalez. With a par serve accuracy of 73%, Ryderstedt managed to win 17 of his 27 serve points. This
coupled with the serve break meant an effective end to the set at 6-4 in favor of the Swede. Gonzalez meanwhile had a dismal 58% first serve accuracy and his sloppy game meant that he gave away two double faults in the first set only.
Gonzalez made a determined effort to make his way back into the match and won the second set. Unfortunately for him, he could not sustain this effort through to the end of the match and lost again in the third set. The second set
witnessed both the contenders bagging two aces each. The two even had similar first serve accuracies at around 57%. However, it was due to Gonzalez’s ability to effectively utilize these serves by getting 9 of the 12 serve points that he managed to edge past
Ryderstedt, if only for this one set. Gonzalez also recorded two serve breaks in the game and won the set 2-6.
Ryderstedt made his comeback in the third and final set of the match. Ryderstedt’s two aces compared to Gonzalez’s none and his efficiency at bagging 12 of the 13 serve points won him the set and the match. With two breakpoints
successfully executed by Ryderstedt the game quickly reached the set point and he concluded the set with an admirable 6-2 win.
The Swede is now set to meet either Andrey Golubev or Ruben Hidalgo in the second round of the men’s singles at the Swedish Open.
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