Olivier Rochus and Yen-Hsun Lu move it into the second round of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
Olivier Rochus vs. Blaz Kavcic
Belgium’s Olivier Rochus defeated Slovenian contender Blaz Kavcic in three straight sets 3-6, 6-4 and 7-5 in their opening round match at the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Thursday night.
His finest performance at the event had come last year, when he booted out Richard Gasquet of France in the first round 7-6(2), 1-6, 6-4. In the next round he met Novak Djokovic, a 2007 champion here. He defeated the Serb in three straight sets 6-2, 6(7)-7, and 6-4 to move on ahead where he lost to Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.
Kavcic had a finer start to the match as he fired in 4 aces and 54 per cent of his first serves. On the other hand, the Belgian didn’t manage to strike a single ace and double faulted two times.
Given the huge difference in the first serves percentage, it was surprising to see both players share the same point conversion rate. Kavcic converted 64 per cent of his first serves whereas Rochus had a 62 per cent conversion rate.
Kavcic broke his opponent in the 9th game and grabbed the first set with 6-3 going one up in the set score.
The second set saw, Kavcic putting his game skills to good use landing with 3 aces and 59 per cent of first serves. As the lady luck seemed to be not on his side again, he double faulted 3 times and could not save his break point opportunity. He delivered 59 per cent of his first serves and won 68 per cent of points from them. Whereas the Belgian converted 67 per cent of points out of 51 per cent of his first serves. The Belgian converted 67 percent of his break point opportunities and sewed up a win against his Slovenian contender with 6-4 in set score.
In the final set, the Belgian put his tennis experience to good use and struck 57 per cent of the first serves winning 62 per cent of points from them. Whereas Kavcic converted 59 per cent of his first serves into points. In a tough battle Rochus stole the final set with a 7-5 set score.
The Belgian will meet Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the next round.
Yen-Hsun Lu vs. Pere Riba
Yen-Hsun Lu, a Taiwanese professional tennis player, ousted Pere Riba in two straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
Lu, who is currently number1 in Asia and 43rd in the world, made his career best performance at the 2010 Wimbledon where he reached the quarterfinals defeating Horacio Zeballos, Michal Przysiezny, Florian Mayer and Andy Roddick in the fourth round, before losing to World number 2 Novak Djokovic in the Quarter finals.
Playing their first match ever, Lu took the first set 6-3, making good use of Riba’s three double faults and registered a phenomenal 94 per cent winning percentage on serve, as opposed to Riba’s meager 67 per cent.
Following the opening set win, 27-year-old Lu seemed intent on winning the final set without any considerable fight. Lu won 71 per cent of points via first serves, while Reba could only won a poor 36 per cent. In addition to this, Reba also had difficulty in saving break points since Lu was able to convert 80 per cent of his break point opportunities successfully, while Reba only managed to convert 40 per cent of the break points.
Lu managed to defeat the Slovenian 6-2 in the second set. He now moves on ahead to face Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the second round.
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