Defending Champion Jurgen Melzer Ousted

The 2013 Winston-Salem Open Champion Jurgen Melzer was defeated in the first round by David Goffin 6-3, 6-4. Riding a 23 match win streak, Goffin hugged the baseline the entire match forcing the Austrian to make mistakes and flustering him.

The slender 5-11, 152 lbs Belgian broke the big-serving southpaw in the first service game of each set. Melzer has battled a left shoulder injury in recent months, calling it "90 percent" before the tournament. But today, he refused to use his ailment as an excuse, "It's fine. It's not bothering me. It's just a lack of matches."

Known as an all-court grinder, Goffin had one of his best serving days in his career. He was not broken the entire match and consistently cranked flat serves in the mid-120 mph.

Melzer was quick to compliment his opponent, "He's on a [23 match] winning streak. The word losing is not in his vocabulary at the moment. You can see that in the important points. He aced me [several times] in key points. He has the confidence to go for the lines at the moment."

When discussing his remarkable win streak, which includes four straight tournament wins, Goffin said "It's unbelievable. I'm pretty happy how I'm playing at the moment... Three months ago I changed my coach. I played Jurgen in the French Open [losing in four sets], I played well. At Wimbledon, I played Andy Murray [losing in straight sets] and my level was high. And now I have the results I have expected."

I coined this match "The Battle of Downtown Thai," because both players were within a few tables of me at the restaurant on Saturday night. Melzer's favorite place to eat in Winston-Salem, he joked, "They forgot who I was. I thought they would remember me."

Going forward, the restaurant needs to remember David Goffin. Because if he continues to play how he did today, he will be around all week. His next match is against No. 4 seed Leonardo Mayer.