Article

  • Early exit for Berdych

    3/16/08 2:48 PM | David Cox
    - Day 3 of the Pacific Life Open progressed mostly with the formbook in the 3rd quarter but Tomas Berdych became the first big name to go crashing out

    David Ferrer (5) bt Olivier Rochus 6-2, 6-2

    For lovers of long rallies this was the match to watch, both these players cover the court so well and are so good on the run that at times it appeared they would just grind each other down into the desert dust. However it was far from just attritional baseline tennis, both men are fond of the dropshot and Rochus in particular has touch to die for around the net. Ferrer made a strong start opening up a 3-0 double break lead with some punishing forehands. However Rochus started to find the corners with backhands and some errors from Ferrer let him back into it. In the end the match hinged on a marathon game with Ferrer serving at 3-2. These two tend to cancel each other out by playing to their strengths (Ferrer’s forehand and Rochus’ backhand) and there were so many deuces in game 6, it appeared stalemate had been reached. Running down absolutely everything, Rochus created two break points with some fabulous backhands down the line but with the chance to get back on level terms in his hands, he missed a very makeable smash. Eventually Ferrer held with some good serves for 4-2 and it was one way traffic from there. Too many errors started to flow from the Belgian’s racket while Ferrer’s forehand was at its brilliant best, conjuring winners from nowhere. Unlike their match in Dubai, Rochus struggled to win points at the net (down to the sheer quality of Ferrer’s passing) and that really hurt him today


    Stanislas Wawrinka bt Tomas Berdych (10) 2-6, 7-6, 6-4

    The first real shock of the tournament. Berdych will be surely furious with himself for letting this one slip away and rightly so, it was his for the taking. There were so many breaks at the business end of set 2 that you’d have been forgiven for thinking Elena Dementieva was playing. Berdych led 6-2, 2-0 and appeared to be cruising but a big Wawrinka fightback completely turned the tables. The Swiss broke twice and served for it at 5-3. However he lost his nerve and Berdych reeled off 3 games. Serving for it at 6-2, *6-5 surely the Czech had it in the bag ? Unbelievably he lost serve to love and Wawrinka dominated the tiebreak from 3-3 to force a decider. Wawrinka broke to 30 to lead 3-2 and managed to hang on, saving break point as he served for it at 5-4.

    Wawrinka now plays Marcos Baghdatis who survived a complete 2nd set meltdown to get past the unheralded Wayne Odesnik 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-3

    26th seed and Aussie Open quarter-finalist Jarkko Nieminen also crashed out, he served for the match in set 2 against Hyung-Taik Lee but the Korean battled back to take it 4-6, 7-6, 6-3

    Philipp Kohlschreiber set up an enticing 3rd round clash against Djokovic after withstanding a hard serving display from Xavier Malisse. The German’s extra consistency eventually told as he came through 6-2, 5-7, 6-4

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Comments

Berdych simply can't play in the wind - I have to say that I am unsurprised that Wawrinka got him.

cherylmurray , 3/16/08 9:07 PM



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