Tomas Berdych edges past Jurgen Melzer into second round – China Open 2011
Rated at number 10 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, had an excellent beginning to his China Open campaign, defeating the 21st ranked Austrian competitor,
Jurgen Melzer, in the first round clash on Tuesday afternoon.
Third seeded Berdych battled for one hour and thirty seven minutes to wrap up his hard-fought victory in straight sets 7-5, 7-5, to move in to the second round of the ATP World Tour 500 event.
The contest was played on the outdoor hard courts of the Olympic Green Tennis Center, in Beijing, China, with the Czech number one registering his 43rd victory of the running season. Berdych had to manoeuvre his way
to victory against the resilient Austrian, who gave him some tough time before finally submitting the matchup.
Berdych finally avenged his defeat from Melzer, who outplayed him in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, in their last encounter in 2007 quarter-finals in Sydney. The Czech overwhelmed him this time round to level his head-to-head series
at 2-2 against Melzer in singles encounters.
It was an evenly poised contest, with both men stretching each other to their limits. Melzer hung in the contest with his brilliant stroke play but a couple of silly mistakes on the most crucial moments of the game proved too taxing
for him. He secured 33 out of 46 first serve points the game, in reply to Berdych’s 28 points, yet finishing on the losing side in the end.
The unseeded Austrian utterly failed to register a single serve break in the entire matchup, squandering away three vital break opportunities to let his opponent fly away with victory. The third seed converted two of his three
break points to oust Melzer from the competition in style.
Both sets took off in a similar fashion, with no serve breaks witnessed in the opening 11 games. Berdych nailed timely serve breaks in the 12th games of the both sets to edge past Melzer in a convincing manner. A total
of 136 points were played in the matchup, with Berdych bagging 76, and Melzer following him with 60 points to lose the game.
Berdych will have to go through the German qualifier, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the next round clash to earn a place in the semi-finals of the China Open. Kohlschreiber was successful against Spain’s Tommy Robredo in straight sets
6-3, 7-6(0), in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday afternoon.
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