Tomas Berdych and Ernest Gulbis advance to second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
Czech third seed Tomas Berdych qualified for the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by defeating the unseeded Jeremy Chardy in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 on Monday. It was a convincing victory for Berdych, as he allowed his opponent to
win only five games during the match.
Berdych put pressure on his opponent from the very start of the match and broke him twice in the first set to claim the set 6-2. Berdych’s dominated the first set, as he did not face a single break point and converted two of the three break points he received
on Chardy’s serve. Berdych, having one of the most powerful serves on the circuit, hit two aces in the first set, which is quite low to his standards, but still he managed to dominate his service games by hitting 57 per cent of his first serves.
Chardy fought back in the second set and was leading 2-0 when rain came to Berdych’s rescue and play got suspended. Play was resumed after a break of 28 minutes, as Berdych bounced back and won six of the next seven games to clinch the second set 6-3. The
match lasted for 66 minutes.
“For me, it was very important, the game when we came from the locker room,” said Berdych. “If you have a set up and then it's 1-2 and you are back on serve or you are down 0-3, it's a very big difference. It gives me just a big confidence that I'm back
in the second set, not giving to him a lot of chances to maybe take a set. Just was feeling very good on court.”
With this win, Berdych improved his record to 11-3 during the season. He has made it to the quarter-finals or better of all the four tournaments he has played. The Czech next faces either Nikolay Davydenko or Guillermo Garcia Lopez in the second round.
Ernest Gulbis, the eighth seeded Latvian, easily made his way into the second round, as he got the better of German wild card entrant Michael Berrer beating him 6-3, 6-4.
Gulbis broke his opponent five times during the match and managed to save all three break points he faced on his own serve. The Latvian hit ten aces and hit 62 per cent of his first serves in the 93 minute match.
"I'm happy,” said Gulbis. “It's the first win after a long time for me, because I skipped Rotterdam because I was sick, and in Marseille I didn't feel so well. I came here a bit early, on Thursday, and practiced hard and good. It was tough in the beginning
[of the match]. But in the end of second set, I was really pleased the way I played.”
Gulbis will face the winner of first round match between Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky and Omar Awadhy from the United Arab Emirates in the second round.
The excitement is starting to build, as the second round is set to begin. The tennis fans will have a lot to cheer about, as the players battle it out for the top honours.
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