The French Open is shaping out to be a tournament that will be decided by the top competitors in all of tennis. This past Sunday, another top-10 player in Tomas Berdych advanced to the second round. Berdych cruised to a first round victory over Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets. His opponent for the second round will be Radek Stepanek, who needed four sets to prevail against his first round opponent Ivan Dodig.
Read on below for our preview of what should be another exciting matchup on the courts of Roland Garros. And in other French Open second round action, Stanislas Wawrinka will take on Dusan Lajovic. Click here for our preview of that upcoming battle.
World No. 4 Tomas Berdych was simply dominant in his 6-0, 7-5, 6-3 first round win over Yoshihito Nishioka. The Czech had 32 winners in the match against Nishioka’s four. He also converted 82 percent of his points on first serve, and 71 percent of his points on net. The win helped Berdych avoid his sixth career first round exit at Roland Garros.
[sc:Other240banner ]The victory also puts Berdych in great position to win his first title of the season, and his first ever Grand Slam. But in spite of not being able to win any titles yet this year, Berdych has remained a consistent contender in all of this season’s tournaments. The Czech has advanced to the quarterfinals round or better in all nine of his tournaments in 2015.
Berdych should be able to handle World No. 148 Radek Stepanek in the second round rather easily. The Czech has no issues with clay courts, as he is 10-3 this season on dirt. He also has two wins in three meetings against Stepanek, with Berdych winning the last match in Shanghai back in 2011.
What could pose as a problem for Berdych in this tournament though, is if he runs into a player with a high seed in the latter rounds. All of his nine losses this season came at the hands of top 10 competitors.
Radek Stepanek needs to put together a good run at the French Open if he wants to be taken seriously this season. His 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 win in the first round against Ivan Dodig certainly put him in the right direction. Stepanek managed to connect on six of his eight break point chances in the match, as well as convert 75 percent of his points on first serve against Dodig.
But if we’re to look at Stepanek’s production for the entire 2015 season, we wouldn’t have much to work with. The 36-year old’s 2015 has only started as he took his time recovering from last year’s season-ending back injury.
Stepanek has only participated in one ATP World Tour tournament, the BMW Open in Munich this past April. He needed to win three matches to qualify, but he bowed out in the round of 16 against World no. 20 Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets.
Stepanek’s finish in Munich can already be considered as his best performance of the season. He had been eliminated in the first match of three other ATP Challenger tournaments this year.
Stepanek’s lone victory over his fellow Czech Tomas Berdych was back in 2006 in Marseille. He won the match on the strength of 12 aces. This time around, expect Berdych to win the battle of the one-hit-wonder shot against Stepanek, as Berdych ranks seventh in total aces for the year.
Writer’s Prediction
Berdych with an easy straight-set victory over Stepanek.
