Radek Stepanek edges past Somdev Devvarman into 2nd round – Rakuten Open 2011
Seventh seeded Czech Radek Stepanek trashed Indian Somdev Devvarman in straight sets at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series held at the Ariake Coliseum in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. He registered
a 6-4, 6-3 success over the Assam native, Devvarman to reach the second round on Monday.
A former world number eight, Stepanek re-ignited his 2006 spark to slay the Indian, ranked 85th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, in straight sets on their first face-to-face. After gaining this one
and half hour success, the Czech confidently advanced into the second round to face the winner of the match between Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli and Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
32-year-old Czech confidently entered the Japanese outdoor hard court and bagged his serve in the opening game to take the initial lead. Later, he kept his serves until he got the critical break in the sixth game to go 4-2 up.
Despite losing his serve in the following game, he maintained his focus and broke the Indian’s serve again in the last game to win the opener with a 6-4 score line.
Currently ranked 24th, Stepanek lost his ways into the final set as he gifted away his serve in the opening game. However, he did not raise the white flag and snatched the break back in the sixth game to level the scores
at 3-3. The Czech remained into savage mode to reel off last five games in a row and clinched the set with a 6-3 win.
Overall, the booming Czech clobbered a lower first serve share of 64 percent as compared to the Indian’s 70 percent but he registered a fabulous 69 percent win on it. In addition to this, Stepanek fended off five out of seven breakpoints
faced and cashed in on half of the eight breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch comfortably.
Stepanek is currently in awesome form as he clinched a title at Washington after upsetting top seeded French Gael Monfils in the final in August this season. He was forced to retire from the second round of the Us Open but maintained
his composure to lead his country to glory at the David Cup.
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