Third seed David Ferrer from Spain and number 29 seed Jeremy Chardy from France played a third round match on Day five of the Aus Open, and this was clay court tennis played on a hard court in many ways. It was always going to be tough for Chardy to match it with Ferrer considering the respective records of the two, but life can throw up some surprises.
Chardy began solidly, holding the opening service game with ease. Then Ferrer proved how difficult his serve can be to return. For four games the serve looked good until Ferrer niggled away at Chardy in the fifth game creating break points as efficiently as anyone, to finally take the French player to tipping point. The break arrived, and a sense of relief shot through the Ferrer support camp.
With a taste for it, Ferrer went back to see if he could try some more. Another break, despite all Chardy's hard work, and the set was declared 6-2 in Ferrer's direction.
The second set saw Ferrer cruising through the first few service games with no fear of Chardy causing a problem, whereas the Frenchman was consistently finding it harder, especially in the opening game of the set which went for an eternity.
Then, out of nowhere Chardy struck, breaking the previously impeccable Ferrer serve to love and lead 5-3.
With 40-0 the set was effectively over, but Ferrer took a different approach, deciding to win five points in succession to break back and to upset Chardy. Games went on serve until we reached a tie break, including the twelfth game where Ferrer saved two more set points.
The tie break was won by Ferrer to complete a sad story of missed opportunities for Chardy who now had to win three straight sets to take the match.
That was never going to happen as David Ferrer looked stronger with every passing moment of the match. With the break of Chardy's opening serve of the third, and what would be the final set, Ferrer set the scene for a quick finish to the match, one that he would win 6-2 7-6 6-2
No comments:
Post a Comment