Viktor Troicki ousts Igor Andreev; breezes into the quarterfinals – Gerry Weber Open 2011
Fifth seeded Serb Viktor Troicki barely sweat in the final set to slay a former top twenty, Russian Igor Andreev with a breadstick at Gerry Weber Open, an opener of the grass court season. He registered a 6-3, 6-1 success over
the 27-year-old Russian at Halle, Germany to advance into the last eight on Wednesday.
World number twelve, Troicki eased past Russian, ranked 71 places below him, Gerry Weber Stadion in fifty-two minutes. They met each other for the first time and after earning this victory, the Serb took the lead in the head-to-head
series by 1-0 against Andreev.
25-year-old blasted into the opening set to strike out first three games in a row before Andreev could hold on. Although Troicki face a bump in the seventh game and lost his serve, he quickly roared back by winning the proceeding
two games to bag the opener with a 6-3 win.
The Serb committed four double faults and clobbered a lower first serve share of 56 percent as compared to Andreev’s 60 percent but he registered a spectacular 80 percent win on it. He also saved one out of two breakpoints faced
and converted both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Troicki, who reached his fifth quarter-final this season, raised his level of game in the final set and got the desired break in the opening game. After the Russian held his serve in the third game, he splashed a flurry of groundstrokes
to reel off next four games in a row and earned a breadstick.
The seeded Serb hammered three aces and clobbered an impressive 78 percent win on his slightly higher first serve share. He faced zero breakpoint and converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Up next for Troicki is the highest ranked player of the tournament, Czech Tomas Berdych.
"That is going to be a really tough game," Berdych said about the Serb. "Maybe this time only the ranking position makes me the favourite, but the way he played in the last couple of weeks, that's really good. He’s been playing
really well. He can do a lot of damage. I have never played him on grass. We'll see. I'm really looking forward to that."
The second seeded Czech Berdych downed his fellow countryman, Jan Hernych after rallying back in the second set tie-breaker. He converted two out of ten breakpoint opportunities to his advantage in the match and saved six out of
seven breakpoints conceded to clinch the match with a 6-3, 7-6(7) win.
2007 titlist here, Berdych took one hour and forty-eight minutes to overpower Hernych for the third straight time.
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