Tomas Berdych dispenses Filippo Volandri to clear the first round - Wimbledon Championships 2011
An excellent start for world number seven, Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, at the Wimbledon Championships as he crushed the 81st ranked Italian opponent, Filippo Volandri in the opening round on Monday afternoon.
The one-sided contest lasted for just 94 minutes, with Berdych sealing victory in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, to advance to the second round of the Grand Slam tournament. Volandri proved a total mismatch for the seventh seed
Czech competitor and failed to put any serious challenge to him before surrendering in the third set.
Both men have already faced each other on six prior occasions, with Berdych being victorious on four occurrences, with the most recent being in 2008 at Sydney. The Czech registered his 30th victory of the running ATP
(Association of Tennis Professionals) season by taking down Volandri and has improved the all-time head-to-head series against him to 5-2 now.
Despite of a par first serve precision of 53 per cent, Berdych brilliantly reeled off 29 out of 33 first serve points to get the competitive advantage in the game. 12 fiery aces from the Czech’s racquet greatly assisted him to
victory, so did eight expensive double faults from Volandri.
25-year-old Berdych faced no real difficulty in the entire contest and cruised his way to victory book a spot in the second round of the mega event. He cracked in 32 winners to his opponent’s court, while the Italian replied with
just eight in the whole matchup. Berdych held serve in all of his games and remained unbroken throughout the contest to come out as the winner in the end.
It only took 30 minutes for the seventh seed to wrap up the opening set, breaking Volandri twice and settling the scores at 6-2. Berdych’s aggression continued in the game, as he reeled off all the 10 first serve points in the
second set, driving the Italian out of the contest. He stung two more break points to take the score to 6-2, bagging the second set as well.
Volandri’s poor run continued in the third set, as he sunk further to push Berdych closer to a comprehensive victory. The Czech fired six aces and cracked two more serve breaks to conclude victory at 6-1 with utmost ease and stepped
into the second round of the tournament.
Berdych will now take on Julien Benneteau, the unseeded French competitor who defeated Ruben Bemelmans of Germany in an enthralling five-setter in the opening round of the event.
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