ROME: Reigning champion Rafael Nadal was at his dominant best as he thumped German Philipp Kohlshreiber 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the ATP Rome Masters 1000.
The 23-year-old Spaniard broke his opponent four times and gave up only one break point as he easily avoided the fate that befell world number one Roger Federer when he was stunned by Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday.
The occasion on the brand new centre court in Rome seemed to get to world number 29 Kohlshreiber as he made 28 unforced errors, many wildly off the forehand side, compared to just 11 by Nadal.
The 23-year-old world number three has only ever lost here once, two years ago, and is aiming for his fifth title in six years at the Foro Italico.
Nadal cruised through the first set, breaking in the second and sixth games, but his German opponent finally started making a fist of things in the second.
He even had a chance to move a break ahead at 3-2 after a poor Nadal drive volley left him out of position and he was passed down the line to give up his only break point of the match.
But Nadal saved it and Kohlshreiber's last chance was gone.
The German was too casual on a stop volley at the net in his next service game and put it wide to give up a break point, which he lost as on another foray to the net he failed to deal with a high backhand volley from a powerful Nadal forehand.
Nadal held serve and then completed the victory when Kohlshreiber hit a woeful forehand well long of the baseline, a recurring feature in the match.
Fifth seed Robin Soderling also moved into the third round as he made short work of Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi with a 6-1, 7-5 victory.
The Swede blasted 32 winners to just nine by his opponent as he cruised to victory in just under an hour and a quarter to equal his best ever performance here from last year.
The 25-year-old is enjoying a stand-out season having won the title in Rotterdam and reaching last week's final in Barcelona in his first clay court event of the season.
Before that he also reached back-to-back Masters semifinals in Indian Wells and Miami and is at a career high seven in the world rankings.
Soderling may have been thrashed here by Nadal last year but he then knocked the Spaniard out at Roland Garros in the fourth round before reaching his first ever Grand Slam semi-final.
Australian veteran and former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt's tournament came to an early end as he was beaten in the second round by Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3.
No comments:
Post a Comment