Sam Querrey defeats Kevin Anderson; moves into the second round of Internazionali BNL d'Italia
Tuesday was a very successful day for the American Sam Querrey who progressed into the second round when his South African opponent withdrew from the contest due to an ankle injury. The world number twenty fifth American delighted
the home fans by clawing out a 7-6(1), 1-0 win taking not more than one hour and 21 minutes of play.
Querrey kept his excellent form to beat the South African in the first set of the match. The key of the match was the tie-breaker where Querrey was more determined and focused. Querrey fired five aces with six double faults, winning
89 percent points behind his first serve and 52 percent behind his second serve.
In the first set, both players remained unable to break serves in the first 12 games to tie the score at 6-6, forcing a tie-breaker. Querrey delivered four aces and 46 percent of the first serve in the opening set, winning 88 percent
of the points on them. The American was lucky to win the set despite Anderson’s tremendous service form as he managed to convert 78 percent of points on his meager 44 percent first serves. Having worked his way into a winning position later in the tie-break,
Querrey remained unable to convert three breakpoint opportunities on Anderson’s serve in the first set. The 23-year-old showed no mercy to the South African and totally dominated the decider 7-1. The American tennis ace definitely had the upper hand when his
opponent suffered an injury and called it quits in the first game of the second set.
Querrey, emerging victorious today, has improved his year-to-date win loss mark to 7-9. The American will next face world number ten Nicolas Almagro of Spain in the second round of the tournament. Querrey and Almagro will be meeting
for the third time in their career when they square off on Wednesday. Both of their previous clashes were contested on hard courts and Querrey leads the head-to-head series 2-0. However, the surface will be favoring the Spaniard, who is most competent on clay
courts. The 25-year-old Spaniard is at a 26-8 win loss mark this year, which is highlighted by his recent clay-court titles in Buenos Aires and Costa Do Sauipe.
Both players are in excellent form however someone will have to give up on Wednesday. Querrey’s confidence should be at an all-time high right now and he has to feel good about his prior efforts on hard courts against the Spaniard.
Almagro on the other hand who is at a distinctive advantage on this surface, is more likely to manage his way through to the next round.
It was generally not a good day for the South Africans at the first round at Italian Open in Rome. Alongside Anderson, Chanelle Scheepers who was a qualifier at the tournament also faced defeat at the hands of Russian Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova with a 3-6, 5-7 score line.
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