• ATP Tour

Berdych breezes past Chardy to continue good form

Tomas Berdych maintained his excellent start to the season with another strong showing against Jeremy Chardy © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Profile: Tomas Berdych | Richard Gasquet | Ernests Gulbis | Sam Querrey

Third seed Tomas Berdych continued his impressive start to the season after sailing past Jeremy Chardy 6-2 6-3 in the opening round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Berdych, who reached the quarter finals of the Australian Open last month, carved out eight opportunities to break his opponent, taking five of them to cap a dominant rain-delayed victory.

After taking the opening set with minimum fuss, Berdych found himself 2-0 down in the second before rain suspended play for almost half an hour. The Czech rallied when play resumed, however, reeling off six of the remaining seven games to book a place in the next round.

"For me, it was very important, the game when we came from the locker room," he said. "If you have a set up and then it's 1-2 and you are back on serve or you are down 0-3, it's a very big difference. It gives me just a big confidence that I'm back in the second set, not giving to him a lot of chances to maybe take a set. I was just feeling very good on court."

Eighth seed Ernests Gulbis returned to winning ways with a comprehensive 6-3 6-4 victory against German wildcard Michael Berrer. The 22-year-old Latvian entered the match on the back of a poor run of form that had seen him lose his last three matches - including first-round exits at the Australian Open and in Marseille.

However, in temperatures exceeding 30C, the Dubai debutant bounced back in style, converting two of seven break points and firing down 10 aces in the 93-minute encounter.

"I'm happy," he said. "It's the first win after a long time for me, because I skipped Rotterdam because I was sick, and in Marseille I didn't feel so well. I came here a bit early, on Thursday, and practised hard and good. So I reached some kind of condition which I'm able to play good tennis. It was tough in the beginning [of the match]. But in the end of second set, I was really pleased the way I played."

France's Richard Gasquet also comfortably advanced, dispatching upcoming Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-4 in just over an hour. Gasquet, a semi-finalist two years ago, was mightily impressive on serve, winning 84% of points on his first delivery, and he broke his opponent three times to seal a morale-boosting win.

"I know he can miss some easy shots," he said. "That's what he did at 4-4 in the second set. He missed four easy forehands. He's very talented, but he can miss sometimes. So that's why I'm happy, too, because he didn't break me in the second set. I had to serve well. It was very important."

Germany's Philipp Petzschner and Florian Mayer also progressed courtesy of wins over Adreas Seppi and Jarkko Nieminen respectively.

At the Delray Beach Open in Florida, No. 3 seed Sam Querrey survived a scare to dump out Dustin Brown in three sets, eventually recording a 6-3 5-7 6-3 triumph.

Querrey, who reached the semi-finals in 2008, looked assured from the start, winning 100% of points on his first serve. Brown hit back, however, in the second set and forced a decider. Querrey regrouped in the third and, although he was broken, he managed to do more damage on his opponent's serve to seal a hard-fought win.

James Blake put another memorable win in his locker as his career winds down, taking out seventh seed Benjamin Becker 7-5 6-4 to progress as a wildcard to the second round.

Elsewhere at the Acapulco Open in Mexico, top seed David Ferrer saw off qualifier Adrian Ungur 6-1 6-3 for an ideal start.

Alexandr Dolgopolov continued his hot form of late, knocking out Paul Capdeville 7-5 6-2 on his way to the second round.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.