TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – Tomas Berdych overcame a slow start against Victor Hanescu of Romania in the 1st round Wimbledon campaign to move through with relative ease. The Wimbledon 2010 finalist won 6-7 6-1 6-4 6-3 in the near 3-hour contest. Cordell Hackshaw
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
Tomas Berdych (6) overcame a slow start against Victor Hanescu of Romania in the 1st round Wimbledon campaign to move through with relative ease. The Wimbledon 2010 finalist won 6-7 6-1 6-4 6-3 in the near 3-hour contest. Hanescu fought valiantly in the first set as he fought off nine break points to remain on serve. The quality of play between the two was very high as there were only 7 errors in the set compared to 35 winners; Berdych with 21 and Hanescu with 14. Only two points separate the two and those would be in the decisive tiebreaker. Hanescu sensing a rare opportunity to get an early lead against a top player, took the set 7-6(5) when Berdych’s shot went into the net.
Losing the first set provided Berdych with the necessary motivation to wrest control of the match as he finally converted his first break point on his 11th opportunity. That initial break soon led to Berdych closing out the 2nd set in half an hour 6-1 to level the match. Hanescu stayed on serve in the 3rd set and was up 4-3 when he saw three chances to break, his first of the entire match and serve out the set at 5-3. However, Berdych fired down some bomb first serves including three successive aces to stay on serve 4-4. Berdych then broke Hanescu and served out the 3rd set 6-4. The first hour of play saw Hanescu with the momentum as he had a 1-0 set lead but nearly 90 minutes later, Berdych was up 2-1 sets. Berdych picked up the pace in the 4th set as he broke Hanescu to begin the 4th set and saved break point to go up 2-0. Down 3-5, Hanescu was up 40-15 on his serve but Berdych would close out the match in this game when Hanescu’s shot went long. Berdych is through to the 2nd round 6-7 6-1 6-4 6-3.
Hanescu did all he could to stay close to Berdych but the Czech proved to be stronger. Berdych was timing the ball beautifully. The weight of shots coming for the Berdych racquet was too much for Hanescu to handle. Berdych ended the match with 75 winners and 24 errors. He had 22 aces, won 75% on both his first and second serves. Hanescu had 39 winners and 21 errors and could only win 63% on his 1st serves and 40% on his second. The only blotch on Berdych’s scorecard is that he was 5/25 on break points including 0/9 in the 1st set. This portion of his game has to improve if he wants to go far this tournament. He next plays Australia’s rising star Bernard Tomic who took out Evgeny Donskoy of Russian in straight sets 6-4 6-3 6-2.
