Tomas Berdych eases into second round of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
World number seven Tomas Berdych secured a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 win over the French Jeremy Chardy in the on-going ATP Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2011 at the Aviation Club on Monday.
The Czech made a shaky start to the match losing his first service game to the world number 44, Jeremy Chardy. However, he quickly recovered and despite trailing by 2-1 in the first set, he went on to win it by taking five games on the trot.
In the second set, Berdych was trailing by 2-0 but he showed great determination and fighting spirit as he took six of the last seven games to beat his opponent in straight sets.
The match was halted for a while due to rain but the Czech required only 66 minutes on court to finish the proceedings. With this win, Berdych now also leads the head-to-head record against Chardy by 2-0.
“It was really solid,” Berdych commented afterwards. “I was not really aiming for some special and extreme shots...just try to be as consistent and patient, with not too many mistakes.”
He further added, “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.”
On the other hand, Chardy struggled to find his rhythm right from the start. Even though he had the advantage early on, he never looked in control.
In another match, fifth seeded Ivan Ljubicic was forced to retire after he suffered a leg injury during his first round match against Sergey Bubka Jr.
After his semi-final appearance at the ABN AMRO Championships where he was defeated by Jo Wilfred Tsonga earlier in February 2011, Ljubicic experienced problems in all departments of the game. He lost the first set 6-1 and although he was leading in the
second set 1-0, he was advised not to continue after being examined by his personal trainer.
Unaware of his opponent’s condition, the 342nd ranked Bubka did enough to take the first set in less than half an hour. Bubka, the son of pole vault great Sergey, admitted that he knew something was not right with his opponent early on. With the
defeat, Ljubicic became the only seeded player to tumble in the first round.
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