Albert Ramos and Simone Vagnozzi advance into the second round of the Barletta Open
Seventh seed Spaniard Albert Ramos battled out against Marius Copil of Romania in the first round of the Barletta Open in Italy on Tuesday night. The Spaniard concluded his hard fought victory at 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, taking two hours
and fourteen minutes of play.
The 23-year-old Spanish had to strain hard at the beginning of the contest before submitting the first set to the hard hitting Copil. Ramos upped his pace in the later stages of the game and eventually routed out the Romanian from
the contest by bagging the following two sets.
Although Copil had an ordinary serve game, he took down the seventh seed by surprise in the opener. The Romanian delivered just 57 per cent first serve on target in the first set, conceding five costly double faults. A decisive
tie breaker was enforced in the opening set after both contestants exchanged two serve breaks. Copil held his nerve in the decider and won the first set at 7-6(5) to get one up in the match.
Ramos bounced back magnificently in the following set with his brilliant serve game. He hit 71 per cent first serve on target and clinched 17 out of 24 points on it. His opponent fired six thudding aces at the Spaniard and broke
his serve one. Ramos stung two break points to bag the second set at 6-4 and level the contest with one set a piece.
The Spaniard carried on his winning momentum into the decisive set and completely wiped off Copil from the game. Two crucial serve breaks from Ramos propelled him to victory at 6-1 in the third set. He will be taking on the Slovenian
wildcard, Aljaz Bedene, in the next round at Barletta. Bedene won his first round match against Igor Sijsling of Netherlands in straight sets 6-1, 7-5, to make it to the second round of the tournament.
In the other match of the evening, Simone Vagnozzi of Italy qualified for the second round of the Open Barletta after his fourth seed opponent Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia forfeited from the contest.
Both players had an aggressive start to the contest and three serve beaks were registered in the total seven games being played in the contest. Kavcic served with 95 per cent accuracy and struck a break point in the very first
game of the match but tend to lose his steam soon afterwards. Vagnozzi stung two serve breaks by taking advantage of debilitating conditions of the Slovenian and was leading 4-3 when Kavcic called of the contest due to injury.
Vagnozzi will take on Ivo Minar of Czech Republic, who defeated the Italian qualifier Adlechi Virgili in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, in the first round at Barletta.
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