Andrea Arnaboldi strains past Frederico Gil in the opening round – Poznan Porsche Open 2011 CH
A huge upset at Poznan Porsche Open, as the second seeded Frederico Gil of Portugal crashed out of the opening round of the tournament at the hands of the unseeded Italian competitor, Andrea Arnaboldi, on Tuesday afternoon.
Being played on the clay court of Poznan, Poland, the contest witnessed a brilliant display of quality tennis from both men, with the Italian finally coming out as the winner in the third set to make it in to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event. Arnaboldi wrapped up straight sets victory in two hours and thirty minutes of sweating play, settling the final scores at 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-1.
The contest was evenly posed in the opening two sets of the match but the Italian completely had his grip over the contest in the final set of the match to oust the second seed Portuguese from the tournament with ease. Arnaboldi took off the opening set with his aggressive manoeuvres to clinch 11 out of 13 first serve points, despite of an ordinary serve precision of 54 per cent in the set.
Two successive serve breaks from the Italian’s racquet proved lethal for Gil in the opener and forced him to submit the set at 2-6 to let his opponent one up in the contest. Arnaboldi was well on his way to a straight sets victory but the second seeded Portuguese made a tremendous comeback in the following set to take the momentum away from his opponent.
After an early trade of serve breaks, the second set entered into a tie breaker round and the Italian poorly collapsed in the decider to let Gil away with the set at 7-6(2). A nail biting final set was anticipated but the Portuguese went through a drastic slump and posed absolutely no real resistance to contain Arnaboldi. The Italian cracked in two serve breaks to rocket away to victory at 6-1, getting a pass to the second round of the tournament.
Up next for Arnaboldi in the second round is the unseeded competitor from Kazakhstan, Yuri Schukin, who stood victorious against the local wildcard Bartosz Sawicki in straight sets 6-1, 6-0, in the opening round.
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