Twenty-first seed Tomas Berdych has progressed easily to the second round of Australian Open 2010, seeing off Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-0 6-3 6-3.
The first round encounter looked to be a complete mismatch when the 24-year-old Czech broke Haase’s serve at every opportunity in the first set, claiming it 6-0 in just 20 minutes.
But 22-year-old Haase, the world No. 390, showed he does have potential to climb higher as he immediately broke Berdych’s serve and looked a strong contender for the second set.
Haase has been as high as 56 in the rankings, and has beaten Berdych once before at a tournament in Canada in 2007. He played on that confidence early in the second set as he held serve and took a 2-0 lead.
With Haase ahead, the world number 21 reacted swiftly and broke the Dutchman’s serve to level the scores. He went on to break again with the scores at 4-3, taking a 5-3 lead and then holding his own serve to close out the set.
The third set again went Berdych’s way. He broke in the fifth game of the set to lead 3-2, and overcame Haase once more to claim the set and the match.
The victory continues a strong start to the year for the Czech player, who reached the semi-finals of the Brisbane International before being eliminated by eventual champion Andy Roddick in three sets.
His service game will remain somewhat of a worry, however, as he looks forward to a second round clash with Kazakhstan’s Evgeny Korolev.
Berdych served only two aces in the match to Haase’s five, and managed to land just 50 per cent of hit first serves in play in the victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment