There are always illustrious casualties at the Asian swing. It might be the dramatic time zone change, the completely different envinronment (and food) or the exaustion for a long trip. This year wasn’t any different.
Last week in Tokyo we have witnessed an unexpected win by Nadia Petrova in a tournament where Azarenka had to retire due to a mysterious fatigue, Sharapova and Kvitova also crashed out a bit earlier than expected.
This week in Beijng 4 top seeds crashed out in the first round and other two seeded players (Djokovic and Tsonga) had to face a tough 3 set match.
Djokovic – Berrer 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2
Nole’s game wasn’t… Nole’s game. The Serb was very untidy to get to the third set with the world no.123. Considering that Berrer is also 32 years old (so not an upcoming player…) this is not good for Nole.
“Then I had a couple of break points in the first game of the second. He stayed with some big serves. That’s when I think he changed his tactics and his service games. He started mixing it up more, and I had tough time reading it. I made little adjustment on the return, came closer to the line, and it paid off.” said Djokovic
The worst part of it is that the match lasted 2 hours. This is horrible for the Serb that is aiming at winning Beijing and Shanghai and saving energies is really important.
Nole will play Berloq in the second round. Head to head is 1-0 for Djokovic. They played last year in the second round of the US Open where Nole won 6-0 6-0 6-2. The Serb is the super hot favorite and this time he has to be quickier to save energies.
Tsonga – Istomin 4-6 6-1 7-6 (3)
This was a closer match with Tsonga blasting 14 aces on 15 service games. Finally the Frenchman managed to win it at the tiebreak of the decider in slightly less than 2 hours.
“It was not easy, because I played a good player in the first round; it was not easy to get used to the conditions,” said Tsonga. “Point after point I played better and better during the match. It’s some points for me to maybe have a chance to play the last eight at the end of the year. So for me it’s really important to win and continue to win.” Said Jo
Tsonga will play Davydenko in the second round. Head to Head is 2-1 for Davydenko, but the Russian do not defeat Tsonga since 2008. It’s a different world now and Jo is the favorite.
Other matches … and casualties.
Seed no.2 David Ferrer had to surrender to the stomach flu when he was 5-4 down in the first set with Lu.
Seed no.4 Marin Cilic lost 3-6 7-6 (0) 6-4 to world no. 221 Marius Copil that blasted an amazing 21 aces in 15 service games.
Seed no.7 Tommy Haas lost to Youzhny 6-4 4-6 6-2.
Seed no. 8 Fernando Verdasco lost to Sam Querrey 5-7 6-3 6-4.