Philipp Petzschner upsets Jurgen Melzer in the first round – Brisbane International 2012
German contestant, Philipp Petzschner, stunned the Austria’s superior ranked seventh seed, Jurgen Melzer, in the first round of Brisbane International, contested in Brisbane, Australia. The world number 63, Petzschner, eased
past 33rd ranked Melzer in straight sets 6-1, 7-5, to confirm the place in the second round draw, taking merely one hour and five minutes.
It was the third encounter between the two professionals and astonishingly previous two encounters were also bagged by the inferior ranked German. Melzer had an ideal opportunity to cut down the head-to-head trail of two
games but he failed to do so; German piled up his lead and added yet another win to his tally.
The contest was completely dominated by the German, as he started the proceedings with couple of aces and played enthralling rallies in the second game to delight the viewers. With pin-point power hitting, he pocketed the
first break in the second game and took 2-0 lead upfront, which was further enhanced to 3-0 in the next game.
Everyone was thinking that Melzer will bounce back in the set but another successful break in the fourth game completely crushed all the chances of his rival’s comeback. He continued his domination over the game and took
a majestic 5-0 lead that pulled down curtains for the Austrian seventh seeded professional in the first set.
Second set was a bit monotonous as the local crowd witnessed a see-saw battle between the two contestants. Seventh seed had to win this set in order to make sure he was in with a chance to qualify for the second round but
he didn’t look to put any sort of extra effort and flare to his game. No enthusiasm was seen as the rusty Austrian was happy holding on to his serves and not looking for that extra guile to shake the inferior ranked German’s momentum.
Couple of aces from Melzer seemed to have pumped blood in the match but it was the only thing that was cheered at his end; rest was all owned by the German. Scores slowly moved on to 5-5 with not much drama. Everyone anticipated
a tie-breaker at this stage but German had other plans.
Austrian started the eleventh game in the same fashion but was stunned by the onslaught from the German opponent. Petzschner ousted his competitor twice in the same fashion; striking a return to the corner and running to
the net to play a perfectly paced drop shot. He won the crucial break at that stage and held his serve to confirm the possible upset.
Philipp Petzschner plays Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the next round of the tournament.
Tags: