Ryan Harrison, Karol Beck clear their opening round matches – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Lucky loser from the United States, Ryan Harrison, cleared the opening round at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday afternoon, after he defeated the world number 37, Ivan Dodig of Croatia.
19-year-old Harrison took two hours and fourteen minutes before registering his straight sets victory over the Croat competitor, settling the final scores at 7-6(5), 6-0, 7-5, to earn a place in the next round of the third Grand
Slam tournament of the running year.
It appeared to be a pretty one-sided contest, as Dodig failed to bag any set in the contest. The opener went to the wire and was decided in the tie breaker round but Harrison absolutely devastated his opponent in the next set,
which lasted for merely 21 minutes.
The American competitor reeled off 47 out of 57 first serve points in the game and stung five out of nine serve breaks en route to victory. Harrison had some tough time in the opening set, with none of the contestants registering
any serve breaks and dragging the set into a tie breaker round, which he won convincingly at 7-6(5).
Harrison then blew away the Croat competitor in the following set, breaking him three times in a row to take the second set at 6-0 and then went on with his winning momentum in the third set as well to conclude victory at 7-5.
The American will play against the world number seven, Davis Ferrer of Spain in the next stage of the competition, as Ferrer was victorious against Benoit Paire of France in the opening round of the tournament.
In the other singles match that followed, Karol Beck of Slovakia stood victorious against the world number 70, Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, to move in to the second round draws of Wimbledon. The Slovak strained for four hours and
three minutes before he clinched the five-set thriller 4-6, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, to register an epic victory over Berlocq.
The back-and-forth affair witnessed one of the finest displays of pro tennis from the two contestants, who threw everything they had at each other. Both men exchanged a number of winners and serve breaks before the contest got
levelled at two sets a piece. Beck then shifted hi gears to race away to victory, sealing the fifth set at 6-4 and earned a place in the second round of the tournament.
The Slovak will square off against the 26th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships later this week. The Spaniard reached the second round after his opening round opponent,
Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, withdrew from the contest due to injury.
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