Tomas Berdych blows away Juan Monaco to clear the second round – Western & Southern Open 2011
Dropped to number nine in world rankings this week, Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, displayed his brilliance in disposing of the 39th ranked Argentine competitor, Juan Monaco, in the second round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, on Tuesday afternoon.
Berdych kept his clean record against Monaco in singles matchups and registered a comprehensive straight sets victory at 7-6(2), 6-0, to make it to the third round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series event. The contest took place on the outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, with the eighth seeded Czech registering his 37th victory of the running ATP season.
25-year-old Berdych took one hour and thirty six minutes of play to settle the clash and moves one step closer to the quarter-final draws of the Cincinnati Masters. Despite of delivering just 56 per cent of his serve on target, the eighth seeded Czech fired nine cracking aces and reeled off 29 out of 35 first serve points in the matchup to come out as the winner in the end.
It was the fifth straight victory for Berdych against the crafty Argentine, who already suffered two crushing defeats from the Czech earlier this year. The last time these two men met resulted in a comprehensive straight sets victory for Berdych in the round of 32 of Rome Masters. The Czech competitor never lost a contest against Monaco and now leads 5-0 lifetime against him in singles encounters.
Berdych crafted a total of 11 break opportunities in the matchup but just four conversions proved sufficient to drive Monaco out of the competition with ease. The Argentine fought valiantly in the opening set and posed some serious resistance to the eighth seed at times but gradually lost his steam as the contest progressed. An early exchange of serve breaks was witnessed in the opener, followed by a routine game to drag the set into a tie breaker round.
By the tie breaker round, Monaco had lost all his steam and secured just two points before submitting the first set to Berdych at 6-7(2). The Czech was absolutely ballistic in the second set and broke Monaco in his every serve game to rocket away to victory at 6-0, making a place in the third round of Cincinnati Masters. He will take on the winner of the clash between the ninth seeded Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro and the Croatian, Ivo Karlovic, in the next round.
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