Andrea Arnaboldi clears opening round match at the Open Barletta Challenger
Italian qualifier Andrea Arnaboldi won his opening round match against Guillermo Olaso of Spain at the Open Barletta at Barletta, Italy on Tuesday night. Arnaboldi took merely 91 minutes to conclude his straight sets victory at
6-1, 7-6(3) to move on to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
The 23-year-old Arnaboldi exhibited brilliant tennis skills to outplay his opponent’s error ridden game. He delivered his first serve with about 60 per cent accuracy, firing two aces and conceding three double faults in the contest.
Olaso was led down by his bleak serve in the game as he delivered just 48 per cent first serve on target, committing plenty of unforced errors including seven costly double faults.
The two contestants collected identical percentage of first serve points (i.e. 74 per cent) but the Italian proved himself far better player in terms of breaking the opponent’s serve. Arnaboldi crafted four break chances and availed
all of them to get the competitive advantage in the game but the Spaniard only struck one break point in the whole matchup.
The local had an explosive start to the contest, stinging three serve breaks to the opponent’s serve in the very first set of the match. Olaso failed to register any break point and bagged just 35 per cent total points in the opening
set. His weak baseline defence was breached by the Italian on regular occasions and his sloppy footwork wasn’t good enough to anticipate the opponent’s moves. Italian rocketed through the opener, sealing the set at 6-1 to get one up in the contest.
A more enthralling second set was witnessed as the Spaniard bounced back very strongly to give a tough time to his opponent. Olaso amazingly won 17 out of 21 first serve points in the second set and struck a serve break as well
but Arnaboldi did the same to nullify his advantage.
The Spanish assisted Arnaboldi in the second set by conceding five double faults but still managed to drag the set into a tie breaker round. Once again the Italian proved his superiority in the decider and gave away just three
points to his opponent. Arnaboldi belted some cracking forehand winners down the line to seal victory at 7-6(3) and advance to the second round of the contest.
Arnaboldi will square off against his fellow compatriot, the unseeded Alessio Di Mauro in the second round the Open Barletta. Di Mauro stood victorious against the second seed Spanish, Pere Riba, defeating him in a three-set thriller
1-6, 6-2, 7-6(5), in the opening round at Barletta.
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