Robin Soderling disposes of Philipp Petzschner in the first round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
An excellent start at the Wimbledon Championships for the fifth seed, Robin Soderling of Sweden, as he defeated the German opponent, Philipp Petzschner in the opening round on Tuesday afternoon.
The world number five took three hours and fourteen minutes before concluding victory at 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5), to move into the second round of the Grand Slam event on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England.
26-year-old Soderling has been in magnificent form during the running ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season, amazingly winning 32 out of the 40 singles matches he played. The Swede has already won three ATP championship titles this year and is considered as one of the strongest contender for taking the Wimbledon crown this time round.
Soderling made it to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon last year but got defeated by the eventual champion, Rafael Nadal of Spain. The Swede has a great beginning to his Wimbledon campaign this year as well and displayed his true class and skills to outplay Petzschner in the opening round. He took down the first two sets of the contest before the German bounced back in the third, only to be defeated in the next set.
The Swede has already defeated Petzschner on two prior occasions, the most recent one being last year at Miami Masters, where Soderling dispensed him off in straight sets 6-1, 6-2, in the round of 32. The fifth seed now leads the head-to-head series against Petzschner by 3-0, after he ended his voyage at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
Petzschner had a sloppy start to the contest but gathered up pace as the game progressed and posed some serious resistance to the fifth seed Swede. The German equally matched Soderling in overall match statistics but the Swede kept winning crucial points in the game to come out as the winner in the end.
Soderling’s serve lacked a lot to be desired, as he delivered just 57 per cent of the first serve on target and conceded six double faults in the game. Both men registered five serve breaks in the contest but it was Soderling who kept his nerve in intense pressure situations of the match. He wrapped up victory by clinching the fourth set tie breaker and earned a place in the second round of the Grand Slam tournament.
Soderling will take on the former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, in the second round of the event, as the Aussie defeated the Japanese competitor, Kei Nishikori in the first round.
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