Tomas Berdych destroys Fabio Fognini in second round – US Open 2011
Ninth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych continued his ascent at the 2011 US Open as he made his way into the third round at Flushing Meadows on Thursday, 1st September after doing away with errant Italian Fabio Fognini in straight sets. Berdych shrugged off a slow start as he secured a 7-5, 6-0, 6-0 win in nearly two hours and thirty minutes.
The Czech had moved into the second round here after successfully doing away with French qualifier, Romain Juan in straight sets while Fognini had bounced back from a set down against Argentine Horacio Zeballos in his opening round match here.
Berdych won the toss and opened service in the first set. However, the Italian was more than eager to match the giant Czech. Following closely in his heels, the Italian kept the scoreboard ticking at even terms as the Czech squandered away four breakpoints opportunities. Ten games later, the score was tied at 5-5 and was well on its way into a tiebreaker. However, a costly double fault on the Italian’s part in the twelfth game gave Berdych the break he needed as he managed to close out the set with a 7-5 win.
Battling it out for almost an hour, Berdych hit four aces, zero double faults and eighteen winners along with an impressive 94 percent on his first serve. He rode a single breakpoint opportunity to go one up in the set score.
Calm, collected and in-form, Berdych came out firing in the second set as he clinched an early break in the second game to enjoy a 3-0 lead. Cashing in on his opponents errant strokes, Berdych extended his lead to a superb 5-0 before clinching a bagel victory in the second set after a successful break of serve. With three aces and six winners to none on the Italian’s part, Berdych added yet another tally to his set wins.
The ninth seed continued his assault in the third round as he once more denied the Italian any game wins early on. Riding a break opportunity, Berdych extended his lead to three games to none in the third set. Two more breaks later, Berdych closed out the set with another 6-0 win, sealing his straight sets victory.
Berdych moves on ahead to play Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the third round here. Tipsarevic moved on ahead after enjoying a 6-3, 6-0 win over German Philipp Petzschner.
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