Abierto Mexicano Telcel Men’s First Round: Filippo Volandri ousts Frederico Gil
Italian tennis player Filippo Volandri managed to oust Lucky Loser Frederico Gil in three sets 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in their first round match at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel tournament, which takes place in Acapulco, Mexico. It took Volandri, who is a direct
entry participant at the clay tournament, just over two hours and ten minutes to proceed to the next round.
Volandri, who is currently ranked World Number 86, began the match with an easy victory in the first set. The Italian player played a fast, almost flawless game to defeat his opponent. Gil was unable to defend himself against four of five break points,
and squandered five of six opportunities to break Volandri. The Italian scored one ace throughout the set, which he won 6-1. He also won twelve points more than his opponent.
This defeat seemed to inspire Frederico Gil, who was replacing David Nalbandian in the tournament, to up his performance in the next set. In an unfortunate coincidence, Volandri also seemed to suffer a mid-match lapse at the same time. The Portuguese
player brought his A-game to the court, breaking Volandri thrice and only facing a single break point himself. In addition to this, he managed to win 57 percent of the total points to take away the set 6-3.
The match went into a tie-breaker after the two players divided the first two sets amongst themselves. They entered the deciding round on an equal footing, but Volandri quickly took the advantage by breaking Gil four times and successfully fighting
off three of four break points himself. World Number 85 Gil seemed to falter, falling behind in the last set 6-4 to give the match up to Volandri.
The match consisted of 13 service and return games for both players, as well a total of 171 points. Volandri won the match with a narrow margin of seven points, and a score-line of 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Filippo Volandri first came to fame in 2007, when he managed to defeated Swiss Maestro and former World Number 1 Roger Federer at the Rome Masters. This is his greatest success so far, although he followed it up with a straight-sets defeat of then-World
Number 12 Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals of the same tournament. He has also faced controversy due to allegations of match-fixing, as well as illegal drug use. He has stated the intention to sue the Association of Tennis Professionals [ATP] over these
accusations, which were revoked by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Italian pro will now face either Spanish third seed Nicolas Almagro, or Romanian player Victor Hanescu in the second round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel.
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