Sam Groth's grass court season got off to a very good start. The Austrailian defeated Ilya Marchenko to advance to the second round of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. Groth barely lost a point on his serve as he upended the Ukranian 7-5, 6-4.
Great beginnings
The Australian is ranked 97th in the world, and he has to be pleased with how he began his grass court campaign in singles competition. He looked undaunted by taking on the higher ranked Marchenko, as he used a heavy dose of aces and ground strokes to dispel of the Ukrainian in straight sets.
The victory didn't come without hard work, however. The match was an even affair for the most part. It wasn't for lack of trying on Groth's part, however. His blistering aces kept Marchenko off balance and the Ukrainian struggled mightily with the heavy ground strokes inflicted upon him by Groth's strong backhand and forehand games.
Though each held serve through the first seven games of the set, Marchenko would eventually run into trouble. While on serve, Marchenko's litany of errors and his struggles with strong returns by Groth put the game at deuce. After back and forth points, Marchenko was able to hold. However, that game seemed like a harbinger of things to come.
In this 12th game of the set, Marchenko would not win a single game on serve. It was a fairly easy break for Groth, and it gave him the set.
The second set was very emblematic of the first. Both men were largely able to hold serve throughout. However, Marchenko had much more trouble in the set than his opponent. Groth, the fastest server in tennis, fired ace after ace against the Ukranian. They skidded off the grass and passed Marchenko with relative ease. All told, he fired 15 aces in the match. Marchenko returned the favor with just eight.
In the last game of the match, the Ukranian struggled to hold serve yet again. Groth, with a game that is perfectly tailored to grass, pushed Marchenko to the brink and eventually over the edge as he broke him to win the match.
The victory is an important one for the Australian. After a humbling defeat at the hands of Rafael Nadal in the French Open, he has gotten off on better footing on the road to Wimbledon. His next second round match will be a tough one, however. He'll face newly minted top 10 opponent Dominic Thiem.