Yen-Hsun Lu, Erik Chvojka enter the second round – Van Open 2011 CH
Top-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan turned the tables on George Bastl of Switzerland at Van Open with a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 victory in the opening round, being played at Vancouver, Canada.
What Bastl needed was a good start but instead the 36-year-old made the worst possible one by squandering six of seven break point chances during the whole match. Bastl, one of the oldest players on tour was plainly off key. His
serve was erratic from the opening game to the last and was highly troubled by Lu’s lethal accuracy.
The Swiss pro was not helping himself with a poor presentation of tennis and it was not until he began to at least find a foothold in the match with help of cutting down the errors and finding some first serves.
Although Bastl came briefly to life, winning 75 percent behind his first serve, his second serve was now shredded and Lu moved in freely to govern the stats with scorching returns on either wings. Bastl had been given with four
break point opportunities in the opener before Lu pulled out a whopping three aces. And when Bastl hit long at 15-40 down in the eighth game, his agony was over.
The second set went by in a similar blur. Again, Lu managed to win the opening game by breaking Bastl in his first service game and, although the 36-year-old did eventually take the score to 1-all, it was far too late to change
the outcome, losing the match in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.
Emerging victorious, the Taiwanese pro now moves on into the second round of the tournament where he will meet Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic, who beat America’s Greg Ouellette to reach the second round.
Also, Erik Chvojka of Canada ended the brilliant run of Pierre-Ludovic Duclos at the Van Open when he took 116 minutes to beat the compatriot 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 and book his place in the second round of the tournament.
Chvojka, ranked 315th in the world, went on the attack early on, unsettling Duclos with impressive volleys to take the opening set by winning it 6-2.
Neither player managed to save any break point chance in the opener and the less fortunate Canadian collapsed in the decisive game as he made every effort to find his range with his usually devastating backhand and Chvojka went
ahead with a thumping forehand winner to clinch the early advantage.
Duclos, however, stepped up a gear in the second set and a couple of brilliant returns handed him a decisive break in the eighth game and he managed to close out the second 6-2.
But the good thing did not last long and Chvojka managed to break back, breaking Duclos’s serve in the opening game and clinching the third set with a bagel win.
With this win, Chvojka has entered the second round where he will meet fifth-seeded James Ward for a place in the quarterfinals.
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