Philipp Kohlschreiber edges past Carlos Berlocq to reach the second round – St. Petersburg open 2011
Rated at number 48 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany went through some tough times before he overcame the 67th ranked Argentine opponent, Carlos Berlocq,
in the opening round of the St. Petersburg Open on Wednesday.
The unseeded German battled hard for two hours and fifteen minutes of play to settle the final scores at 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1, moving into the second round of the ATP World Tour 250 event.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, in Russia, with the German displaying his steely nerves to turn the tables on this opponent. Kohlschreiber dropped
the opening set in tie breaker round to fall on his back foot early in the contest but made a tremendous come back in the very next set to draw the competition on even terms. Once getting into his winning groove, the German never looked back in the final set
and absolutely blew away his opponent to rocket away to victory in style.
It was Kohlschreiber’s 30th victory of the running ATP season and the third one against Berlocq this year. The Argentine lost to Kohlschreiber in Auckland and then Moscow last week to trial 1-3 in the all-time head-to-head
series against the German.
Kohlschreiber bettered his opponent in every segment of the game. A couple of silly mistakes took him down in the opening set but the German remained extremely dominant in the remaining two sets of the matchup. He secured 41 out
of 57 first serve points in the contest, while his Argentine opponent lagged far behind with just 26 points to finish on the losing side in the end.
The unseeded German converted six out of seven break opportunities in the matchup, with five of them coming in the last two sets. Berlocq remained very competitive in the early parts of the contest but gradually lost his steam
in the later to let his opponent on top. Kohlschreiber cashed in most of his opportunities in the contest and remained focused in pressure situations to dispose of the Argentine competitor.
Kohlschreiber will next meet the seventh seed Alex Bogomolov from the United States to fight for a spot in the quarter-finals of the St. Petersburg Open. Bogomolov was successful against the unseeded Russian, Igor Kunitsyn in the
first round of the tournament.
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