Alessio Di Mauro stuns Pablo Andujar in the opening round – AON Open Challenger 2011
Sheer surprise for the tennis fans at Genova, Italy, as the top seeded Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, crashed out of the opening round of AON Open Challenger at the hands of the unseeded local contestant, Alessio Di Mauro on Wednesday.
The enthralling three-setter was settled by Di Mauro at 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(2), in two hours and forty three minutes of play to make a berth in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
It was an evenly poised contest with both men throwing everything they had at each other. Di Mauro was off to a brilliant start in the contest, bagging the opening set to get the early advantage in the game but the top seeded Spaniard made his way back in the match by taking the following set. After an intense competition in the final set, Di Mauro eventually took down Andujar to register a surprised victory in the end.
Despite of a below par serve precision of just 53 per cent, Di Mauro fired 13 cracking aces in the matchup and reeled off 42 out of 61 first serve points en route to victory. The top seeded Spaniard bagged three more first serve points than the Italian but failed to convert most of his opportunities in the matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
The opener was off to a steady set, with both men holding their serve all to way to 5-5. Di Mauro finally converted his third break point in the 11th game to reach 6-5, serving for the set and had no real difficulty in pocketing the opener at 7-5.
Tide turned in the following set, with Andujar forcing his way back in the game with exceptional power hitting. The Spaniard secured 13 out of 14 first serve points and nailed a crucial serve break to close out the second set at 6-3 to level the contest at one-all.
The final set went to the wire, with both men toiling extremely hard to remain alive in the competition. The two contestants traded two serve breaks each to deadlock the scores at 6-6, enforcing a tie breaker round into play. Andujar completely crumbled under the pressure of defeat and collected merely two points in the decider before Di Mauro closed out victory at 7-6(2), to make it to the second round of the AON Open Challenger.
Di Mauro will take on his fellow compatriot, Alessandro Giannessi, in the second round to battle for a place in the quarter-finals.
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