Yen Hsun Lu eases past Pere Riba at the Sony Ericsson Open
27-year-old Taiwanese Yen Hsun Lu dumped 22-year-old Spanish Pere Riba in straight sets to advance to the second round at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open on Thursday.
Ranked 43rd in the world, the Taiwanese is in really bad form this season as he has only won three out of his last ten matches and was ousted in almost all the tournaments in the first round except at Indian Wells where
he managed to reach the second round. However, he seemed to have re-formed as he trashed the world number 74, Riba by 6-3, 6-2 score line.
Lu charged in the opening set and displayed exceptional skills. He outshined the youngster in every department of tennis and clearly prevailed in the set. The Taiwanese committed zero double faults, smashed three aces, had a much
better first serve share of 84 percent as compared to Riba’s 39 percent and earned an awesome 94 percent win on it. In addition to this, he conceded zero breakpoint and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win the set with
a 6-3 score line.
In the second set, the higher ranked Taiwanese improved his game play as he saved four out of five breakpoints, registered an amazing 71 percent win on his lower first serve share and committed only one double fault as opposed
to Spaniard’s five. In addition to this, Lu converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the set with a 6-2 win.
The Spaniard was comparatively in better shape and had won five of his last ten matches. Riba also won the Cancun Challenger in November after triumphing over the top seeded Argentinean Carlos Berlocq but he couldn’t progress at
Indian Wells due to injury and was forced to retire. In this event he just couldn’t make any impact and was eventually trashed out from the Crandon Park in Miami.
He will next face 13th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny who received a first round bye for being a top 32nd seed.
Ranked 14th in the world, Youzhny hasn’t been active much this season. However, he reached the quarter-finals at Rotterdam before losing to the top seeded Swede Robin Soderling in straight sets. He then made a semi-final
berth at Rotterdam where he lost to Croat Marin Cilic in troublesome three sets.
The 28-year-old Russian is in good shape and it would be a tough duel between the two.
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