Aljaz Bedene defeats Filippo Volandri to claim 2011 Barletta Open title
Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene, a wild card entrant into this year’s Barletta Open, outplayed third seeded local, Filippo Volandri in two easy sets to claim his crown at the 2011 Barletta Open today. The 21-year-old Slovenian extended his 2011 winning total to 15 matches and won his first straight tournament of the year, proving to the world that ranking doesn’t matter. He took one hour and forty eight minutes to defeat Volandri in straight sets 7-5, 6-3.
Playing each other for the first time, Bedene delivered 54 per cent of his first serves correctly and won 59 per cent of his service points to dominate the game. He faced 4 break point opportunities and converted 2 of them. Nonetheless, Volandri banking on his ranking of world number 80 delivered 73 per cent of the first serves on target and had a same conversion rate as compared to Bedene’s 59 per cent. The Italian saved 77 per cent break point opportunities and double faulted three times. His double faults acted as a bridge for his much lower ranked opponent to jump through to next set with a 7-5 score line.
In the final set, things became very crucial as both contenders exhibited sheer class of tennis. Bedene served in 53 per cent of first serves and won 75 per cent of his service points. Volandri, on the other hand managed to land it in 11 times out of 25. Both contenders saved equal number of break point opportunities but the meager difference in the first serve points was enough for the Slovenian to break twice, and consequently he took the final set despite being broken once with a 6-3 score line.
This was the first time for Bedene to appear at the ATP Challenger event at Barletta and luckily he made it through to the finals defeating Igor Sijsling, Albert Ramos, Alessio di Mauro and Lukas Rosol in the semi-final of the tournament. The Slovenian looked very amused after winning his first ATP Future title of the year, given the huge disparity in the rankings he knocked down his contender without any difficulty which will encourage him a lot in his upcoming matches.
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