Daniel Munoz-De La Nava advances at BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells - Tennis update
Tenth seeded Spaniard, Daniel Munoz-De La Nava, surpassed Haitian Olivier Sajous at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Tuesday. The Haitian played well until he was injured in the final set and later retired when he was down 0-5.
World number 148, La Nava, displayed his tremendous skills in the opening set. Facing the Haitian for the first time, he won the first set with a single break of serve. Despite double faulting twice, he fired two ferocious aces and had a much better first
serve percentage of 60 per cent as compared to Sajous’ 39 per cent. He also registered an amazing 93 per cent win on it.
La Nava kept his winning ways in the second set as well but the Haitian levelled the score by exchanging three breaks and took the set to tiebreaker. Sajous seemed to re-form as he cancelled out the Spaniard’s moves and finally clinched the set 7-6.
La Nava hasn’t had much progress in the previous tournaments he has played and was ousted from the qualifiers at Santiago, Costa do Sauipe and Buenos Aires. However, he managed to qualify for the main draw at Acapulco though he was ousted in the first round
by Argentinean Carlos Berlocq.
World number 512, Sajous was out from several tournaments this season due to injuries. Once again it seems that lady luck is not on the Haitian’s side. Sajous was forced to retire from the event in the third set due to an injury.
La Nava will next face world number 272, the Australian Chris Guccione. The Aussie reached this round of the event after upsetting world number 174, Ivan Navarro in straight sets.
Guccione is in top form as he reached the final at the Burnie Challenger before he was forced out of the competition due to injuries. However, before his departure he made an epic comeback and overpowered the 16th seeded Spaniard with 7-6, 6-2
in this event. Both players displayed an awe-inspiring game of tennis in the first set as they fired several aces, produced similar first serve percentages and exchanged breaks once to take the opening set to tiebreaker. The Australian edge passed Navarro
in the tiebreaker to win the first set.
The players lost the entertaining spark in the final set as they both produced only a single ace each. The Spaniard gave a very disappointing performance in the decider, winning only two games. Guccione on the other hand won the final set by breaking the
Spaniard’s serve twice and by registering an impressive 83 per cent win on his first serve.
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