Delgado/Marray sail past Rice/Thornley into title match – Loughborough Challenger 2011
The semi finals of the 2011 AEGON Loughborough men’s doubles competition continued on November 10, 2011. The British pair of Jamie Delgado and Jonny Marray played the semi final against the compatriot team of David Rice and Sean
Thornley. The match turned out to be a one-sided affair as Delgado/Marray won the match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
As the first set progressed, Delgado/Marray were trying to get in the lead which they did and later restricted their opponents to win only two games in the first set. Rice/Thornley scored two aces and conceded double faults thrice
into the set.
They were slightly better than Delgado/Marray with 55% first serve winning ratio while their opponents secured a 54% ratio.
The team of Delgado/Marray was looking a bit rusty with their service games as they won 43% points from their first serve but increased their statistics when they won 58% points from their second serve. Rice/Thornley won 50% points
from his first serve but their points on second serve decreased to 20%.
Delgado/Marray saved more breakpoints than their opponents in the first serve as they could save seven out of eight breakpoints. Rice/Thornley could only win a single breakpoint out of the four they faced. Delgado/Marray had a
slow start in the first set, but they did manage to create a lead as the set progressed. Delgado/Marray won the first set 6-2.
Entering into the second set, Rice/Thornley wanted to win the set to tie up their scores but their opponents did not let that happen.
Rice/Thornley did score an ace in the second set and did not concede any double fault, for they were playing to score points and not give any extra points to their opponents.
The British pair could not deliver any ace in the second set as they were playing defensive shots. They did, however, conceded three double faults, which also showed that they were getting a bit desperate to take a lead with their
service games.
Both teams were nearly equal in the second set as Delgado/Marray won 78% points from their first serve and Rice/Thornley scored 73%. The two teams had a reduced success rate with their second serves as Delgado/Marray won 40% points
and Rice/Thornely could win 44% points.
Earlier in the first round of the tournament, Rice/Thornley defeated the Belgium pair of Maxime Authom and Yannick Mertens 6-3, 6-2, but the British pair was unable to show that sort of consistency against Delgado/Marray in the
semi finals.
The team of Delgado/Marray, however, beat compatriot team of Miles Bugby and Andrew Fitzpatrick in the first round in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. They were able to play their semi final in the same dominating style. Delgado/Marray
have now entered the men’s doubles finals of the 2011 AEGON Loughborough Challenger.
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