Philipp Petzschner ousts ninth seed Gilles Simon in first round – Rogers Cup 2011
German qualifier Philipp Petzschner outdid himself by winning Tuesday’s opening round match at the Rogers Cup against his French opponent, the ninth seed Gilles Simon. Faltering only briefly in the first set, Petzschner effectively
sealed the one and a half hour match with the score line at an impressive 7-5, 6-2. In another shocker on Tuesday’s line up of matches at Montreal, two times defending champion Andy Murray made a rushed exit from the tournament’s second round after being thrashed
by the underdog Kevin Anderson.
By scoring this win, Petzschner successfully avenged his 2009’s 6-3, 6-4 loss to Simon at the Mercedes Cup, Stuttgart. The players’ head to head rankings now stand levelled at 1-1, a notable accomplishment for the 80th ranked
German.
The qualifier Petzschner had made headway into the main draws of the Rogers Cup 2011 by steering clear of Greg Ouellette in the final qualifier. He came in with an average 19-16 win loss record for the season to date and has been
performing consistently for the better part of the year. Petzschner has rounded up so far, a final against Philipp Kohlschreiber at his home event in Halle and a semi final performance in Munich. The German had lost in the first round of 2010’s edition of
the tournament.
Petzschner’s opponent, the World No. 11 Simon has an inspiring 30-17 win loss standing and has had an excellent year till now. The French entered the tournament in Montreal hot on the heels of a title win against Nicolas Almagro
at Hamburg and had earlier opened the year by a resounding final win at Sydney, to raise his tally of ATP titles by two to 9.
Simon, who played the opening serve of the first set, managed to offer a significant amount of competition to his opponent but failed to sustain his skill through to play’s end. With scores quickly levelling at 2-2, Petzschner
surged forward in a defiant manner by registering a serve break in the fifth game of the set. The qualifier managed to serve at 59% and won 14 points off his 16 serves, while Simon struggled to connect a humiliating 38% of his serves. Simon surprised everyone
by pulling off a serve break later in the game to again level the scores at 5-5. However Petzschner sealed the deal at 7-5 by matching with an obliterating break of serve in the very next game.
Petzschner dominated throughout the second set by registering two serve breaks, sending his opponent reeling. Simon however couldn’t even once capitalise on his 7 break point opportunities and lost the match 6-2, without putting
up a fight.
Petzschner will next face Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a second round match of the tournament. Karlovic had earlier dismissed Juan Monaco in an opening round match.
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