Philipp Kohlschreiber ousts Edouard Roger-Vasselin in round two – Open Sud de France 2012
Seventh seed German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, faced limited resistance from the 98th ranked local contestant, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, in the second round clash of the Open Sud de France on Wednesday. Kohlschreiber ousted
the unseeded Frenchman in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, to book a spot in the round of eight at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event in Montpellier, France.
Rated at number 33 in the ATP World Rankings, Kohlschreiber exhibited a brilliant show of sheer class and power to take down his bleak opponent. He asserted his authority over the game right from the beginning and carried on with
his winning momentum in the rest of the match to nail a convincing victory. Roger-Vasselin was off to a sloppy start in the opening set but gathered up some pace in the second set. The unseeded French was still not good enough to contain the belligerence of
Kohlschreiber and had to submit the second set to him to suffer a crushing defeat.
The German delivered 68 per cent of his serve on target, belting 10 fiery aces and securing 36 out of 52 first serve points to get the better of his opponent. Kohlschreiber had four break opportunities in the match and he converted
all of them to nail down Roger-Vasselin, whereas the French could register just two serve breaks in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
The contest witnessed a dramatic start, with Roger-Vasselin breaking the German serve after fighting over three deuces; he held his serve to lead 3-0 early in the opener. Kohlschreiber came up with a fitting reply a couple of games
later and stung two successive serve breaks to take hold of the momentum. The number seventh seed held his remaining serves to pocket the first set at 6-4.
Another exchange of serve breaks was seen in the fifth and sixth games of the following set to level the scores at 3-3. It seemed as if the set was heading towards a tie-breaker round but a timely break point conversion from Kohlschreiber
in the 12th game turned the course of the match in his favour. The German concluded his comprehensive victory at 7-5 to reach the quarter-final round of the tournament.
Kohlschreiber has a huge task ahead in the quarter-finals, as he will face the fourth seed home favourite, Richard Gasquet, for a place in the semis. The Frenchman downed the former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia,
in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to march into the final-eight of the tournament.
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