Philipp Petzschner ousts Lukasz Kubot in first round clash – If Stockholm Open 2011
World number 64, Philipp Petzschner of Germany, had limited trouble in disposing of the 61st ranked Pole competitor, Lukasz Kubot, in the opening round of the If Stockholm Open on Monday.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of Stockholm, Sweden, the unseeded German took one hour and eighteen minutes of play to settle the final score at 6-2, 7-5. Petzschner drove Kubot out of the competition in straight sets to book a place in the in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
It was Petzschner’s second straight victory over the Pole competitor in singles encounters, as Kubot was already defeated by him in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships last year. The 64th ranked German registered his 23rd victory of the running ATP season to extend his lead to 2-0 against Kubot in head-to-head combats.
Petzschner was off to a flying start in the opening set and absolutely blew away his opponent to get hold of the competition very early. Once getting into his winning groove, the German never looked back in the contest and cruised his way to victory in the second set.
Kubot was outplayed by a brilliant exhibition of accurate power hitting from the unseeded German opponent. Petzschner secured 28 out of 35 first serve points in the game and converted three of his five break points to drive Kubot out of the tournament in the very first round.
The German nailed two serve breaks right up in the opening set to rocket away to a substantial 4-0 lead in no time. The Pole competitor failed to recover from the huge early damage done by Petzschner’s serve breaks and had no option but to submit the first set to him at 2-6.
Kubot remained more competitive in the following set, moving neck-to-neck with Petzschner and not dropping his serve early. He frittered away three vital break opportunities in the second set and one cracking break point conversion from Petzschner in the 11th game left him answerless. The German closed out the competition at 7-5 to march into the second round of the tournament in style.
Petzschner will either face the sixth seeded Canadian, Milos Raonic, or the unseeded Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, in the next round encounter to battle for a place in the quarter-final rounds of the If Stockholm Open. Raonic and Baghdatis will compete in their opening round match on Tuesday evening and the winner of the tow will play Petzschner in the second round.
Tags: