Benoit Paire dumps Alessio Di Mauro in 2nd round – Todi Challenger 2011
Benoit Paire, Frenchman, went on against the local lad, Alessio Di Mauro at the International Tennis Centre at Umbria for their second round match. The two started off slow, however, with an hour and 27 minutes on the clock, the
Frenchman, seeded fourth, won the fixture 6-2, 6-4.
Comparatively, for the fact that the two were playing for the first time head-to-head, Benoit Paire was the favourite to win going in, being the fourth seeded player. Other than that, Paire had a better last 10 match run which
surely gave him a boost entering the tournament.
Moving on with the match, the two entered the court with the sound of claps for the two as an ovation. Starting with the toss win the world No.115 took the first serve to open up the match and followed with a win, 1-0. Returning
the serve next, the Frenchman was up on level terms as his challenger, local lad, took out game 2.
With scores at 2-2 after game 4 of the first set, Mauro splashed the first breakpoint, however, before he could take advantage of that, he was broken back by the fourth seed and were once again on level terms. The game then equalled
up at 4-4 and 5-5 before Paire struck with the winner.
With a breakpoint winner in the first set, the higher ranked challenger served the game 1 for the second time in the match. Breaking early, Paire commanded a strong lead of 3 games at the end of game 3. Winning his first game of
the set, Mauro tried pulling back up but could not break the Frenchman any sooner.
The 22-year-old Frenchman increased his lead to 4-1 and then to 5-2 before he broke the Italian on his serve and won the match 6-4, 6-2, to walk into the quarterfinal round.
Statistically, the successor had a less percentage of 1st serve accuracy and also bagged less points on his serve, however, his return points peaked over that of his challenger. With 39 service points and an amazing
34 returners, Paire totalled 73 points against 62 of the Italian and walked out as the winner.
The 4th seed now sits in the quarterfinal round of the Todi challenger 2011 facing Adrian Menendez-Maceiras. The seed is expected to sail into the semi-final with an easy straight sets victory.
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