{"id":183,"date":"2011-03-25T13:24:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T13:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=183"},"modified":"2011-03-25T13:24:23","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T13:24:23","slug":"friday-topspin-youth-is-returned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/25\/friday-topspin-youth-is-returned\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Topspin: Youth is Returned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goodbye, Americans<\/em>: Jack Sock<\/strong> had his chance, and he let it slip away. \u00a0The Miami draw gave him a great chance of racking up plenty of ranking points through a first-round matchup with Carlos Berlocq<\/strong>, a clay-court specialist. \u00a0Neither player made more than 55% of first serves, and Sock won barely half of his first-serve points.<\/p>\n

It gets worse. \u00a0The American earned 13 break points, of which he only converted three. \u00a0I don’t want to be too hard on Sock–he’s 18 and ranked outside of the top 500, so it’s not like he came in with high expectations. \u00a0Yet, I’m sure he knows as well as the fans do that he was awfully close to a 1000-level win.<\/p>\n

Measured by points, Sock outperformed his countryman Ryan Harrison<\/strong>, who fell 7-5 6-2 to Rainer Schuettler<\/strong>. \u00a0As in Sock’s match, the culprit was the first serve percentage: Harrison barely made half. \u00a0Schuettler is too consistent and too smart to lose when he gets all those second balls.<\/p>\n

Youth, gone:<\/em> It wasn’t a good day for other youngsters, either. \u00a0Grigor Dimitrov<\/strong> lost in straights to Sergiy Stakhovsky<\/strong>, and Richard Berankis<\/strong> failed to convert a second-set tiebreak and lost to Feliciano Lopez<\/strong> in three.<\/p>\n

The result I’m happy to see is Kei Nishikori<\/strong> over Jeremy Chardy<\/strong>. \u00a0If nothing else, it tells us that Nishikori is able to successfully focus on tennis very shortly after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. \u00a0Kei’s performance is the flip side of Sock’s and Harrison’s: He made 78% of his first serves, a figure that may have made the difference in a fairly close match.<\/p>\n

As a reward for his hard work, Nishikori gets to face Rafael Nadal<\/strong> tomorrow.<\/p>\n

One more: <\/em>Just when you think Ivo Karlovic<\/strong> is unstoppable, he reminds you that the serve is fallible and the rest of his game will never save him. \u00a0Florian Mayer<\/strong>, who my hard court rankings<\/a> place in the top 25, took down the Croat in straights, withstood 10 aces and took advantage of Karlovic’s weak return game. \u00a0Mayer won an astounding 86% of his own service points.<\/p>\n

Today: <\/em>Half of the seeds are in action, each facing one of Wednesday’s winners. \u00a0In a way, the second round of these 96-player events is less exiting than the first, because so many of the seconder-rounders seem to be lopsided. \u00a0Still, here are a few matches worth following today:<\/p>\n