The No. 9 seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic advanced into the third round after taking the first set 7-5 and then double bageled his opponent Italian Fabio Fognini in the next two sets.
The two sets Berdych won 6 games to love were over in a combined time of 52 minutes. Berdych, who was simply too good for Fognini today hit 10 aces and 32 winners. The Czech only lost three points in total on his serve.
Tomas Berdych has reached the fourth round at the US Open three times in 2004, 2006 and 2007. His best Grand Slam result this year is a quarterfinal loss at the Australian Open. Berdych was the runner up at Wimbledon last year.
Next up for Berdych is Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who won in four sets over German Philipp Petzschner 6-0 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moved into to the third round today when he made his way past Ukrainian qualifier Sergei Bubka 6-3 7-5 6-2. The No. 11 seed won the first and the third sets in exactly 30 minutes a piece, the second set lasted 45 minutes.
Tsonga will find his next opponent a little more challenging. It will be Spain’s Brad Pitt Fernando Verdasco, who beat Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-4 6-3 6-1.
The No. 19 seed has reached the quarterfinals at the US Open in the last two year. The Spaniard’s best Grand Slam performance was at the 2009 Australian Open when he lost in the semi-finals.
Verdasco and Tsonga have played once before at the 2009 Australian Open quarterfinal. Verdasco won the match in four sets. Verdasco’s win/loss record this year is 29/19 and Tsonga’s 33/16.
The Tsonga vs. Verdasco match could possibly be one of the best matches to watch at this year’s US Open. The two players never give up and there will be plenty of baseline rallies. It’s hard to pick a winner in this one. Verdasco is known to have played many long and tough matches but Tsonga is currently playing very well. This match is not to be missed.