Andres Molteni sweeps away Leonardo Tavares in 1st round - Ciudad de Guayaquil Challenger 2011
Argentinean Andres Molteni breezed past Portuguese qualifier Leonardo Tavares in the first round of the Ciudad de Guayaquil Challenger 2011.
On outdoor classic clay courts of the Guayaquil Tennis Club in Guayaquil, Ecuador , the players had taken up the challenge and it took Argentinean Molteni one hour and thirty eight minutes to flog the Portuguese qualifier in straight sets of 6-3, 7-5 on Monday the 21st of November 2011.
Serving first for the initial round was Molteni and he smashed two successive aces to clog the opening game. Following in his footsteps was Tavares and he too held his respective serve to place himself on the scoreboard at 1-1. In the third game once again Molteni held his serve but in the fourth, Tavares had to battle a few deuces before he could finally hold his respective serve.
The score had tied at two games each by the end of the fourth game. As the players continued to match a blow for a blow, the score tied for the last time at three games each at the end of the sixth game. However, Molteni wanted to cut the goose chase and for the first time in the set he took a lead by utilizing the serve-break method. As he held his serve for the last time in the set, he bagged the opening round with a 6-3 score.
The second set of the match was commenced by Tavares and this time both the players held their respective serves to place themselves on the scoreboard at 1-1. In the following two games the players then broke each other back to back and the score had tied at two games each at the end of the fourth game.
The cat and mouse chase kept progressing well into the second set and the players managed to level the score at the end of the sixth game at three games each. However, the Portuguese had double faulted on is second serve in the seventh game.
Mean while, the Argentinean had benefitted from the break and he then held his serve to take a mini lead of 5-3 in the eighth game. He was now only a game away from victory but he was unable to bag the set in the following three games.
On the contrary, the Portuguese made a quick return to mitigate the deficit at five games each by the end of the tenth game with a hold of serve and then by breaking back. However, it was a lucky day for the Argentinean as he broke his adversary and then held his serve to steal the match.
Next up for the Argentinean is either eighth seeded Spanish Daniel Munoz-de la Nava or Ecuadorian wildcard entrant Julio Cesar Campozano.
Tags: