Carlos Salamanca defeats Nicholas Monroe to began his campaign - Barranquilla Challenger 2012
Colombian player, Carlos Salamanca, defeated his American age fellow, Nicholas Monroe, in the opening round clash of the Barranquilla Challenger tournament on Wednesday. He completed the triumph in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
It was an easy task for the 245th ranked Colombian considering his opponent had come all the way from the qualifying stages and was a bit fatigued. Monroe struggled to make any impact and was dumped away in just 71 minutes.
Both players started off cautiously. The pressure was exerted on the superior ranked Colombian but he was lucky to sneak away with tight serve holds. The American was played well for the first three games of the match but the onslaught
from his rival in the following game proved malicious for him. He lost a critical breakpoint and went down to a trail of 1-3.
Nothing was going right for the 445th ranked American who failed to pressurize his opponent on his serves. The tables were turned upon him and another breakthrough for the 29-years-old Colombian helped him to place an
unassailable lead of 5-1.
Losing just one point in the final game of the opening set, Salamanca registered an easy triumph. He looked miserable at the start but picked up his game to nail his opponent down in emphatic fashion. Trailing one set down, Monroe
needed to grab an early breakpoint to impose pressure on his competitor.
The second set witnessed a neck-to-neck battle for the first six games. Both players battled extremely hard to break their rival’s serve but failed to do so. The Colombian was the first to break the shackles as he drowned his competitor
in the seventh game courtesy to a world class display. He consolidated his break with a serve hold and went on to power down his opponent for the second time in a row to book a spot in the second round of the tournament.
Carlos Salamanca will have a tough test in the following round of the tournament. He goes head-to-head against the seventh seed Argentine, Horacio Zeballos, who defeated the Chilean player, Rivera-Aranguiz Guillermo, in his first
matchup.
Tags: