Tomas Berdych disposes of Olivier Rochus to reach the third round draw – Australian Open 2012
Seventh seed Czech competitor, Tomas Berdych, faced limited difficulties in dumping the 54th ranked Belgian, Olivier Rochus, in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The world number seven needed just
one hour and 54 minutes to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0, 7-6(4).
Rochus completely failed to put up any serious fight in the opening two sets and could barely win one out of 13 games being played. He lifted up his game in the third set to show some resilience to the world number seven but it
wasn’t sufficient to contain the fury of Berdych.
The Czech number one had an ordinary serve accuracy of 58 percent in the match but he seized 41 out of 45 first serve points to get the better of his bleak opponent. Berdych converted five out of eight break points in the contest,
whereas Rochus utterly not came up to scratch a single serve break in the entire matchup.
Rochus just held his opening serve of the game before Berdych shifted to his rage mode. The seventh seed went on for an 11-game killing rampage to seal the opening two sets in almost an hour. The unseeded Belgian was a mere spectator,
watching thumping strokes from his opponent’s racquet landing on all the corners of the courts and passing him by.
Berdych faced some resistance in the third set, with Rochus finally holding on to his serves. A tie-breaker round came into play but Rochus crumbled under pressure to let Berdych triumph at 7-6(4).
Berdych kept on his winning streak against the 31-year-old Belgian veteran, extending his lead to 5-2 in the all-time head-to-head combats. He last defeated Rochus at the Monte Carlo Masters in 2011 and recorded his fifth straight
victory over him on Wednesday.
The seventh seed will next face South Africa’s number one tennis player, Kevin Anderson, for a place in the round of 16 at the Australian Open. 30th seed Anderson registered a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-3 win over the unseeded
Ukrainian, Sergiy Stakhovsky, in the second round battle of the tournament on Wednesday.
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