Dudi Sela blows out Matthias Bachinger to reach the final four – ATP Challenger Tour Finals 2011
World number 95, Dudi Sela of Israel, had no real trouble in dumping the 109th ranked German opponent, Matthias Bachinger, in the third Round Robin matchup of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger
Tour Finals on Friday night.
The fourth seed Israeli competitor took one hour to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, to confirm a berth in the semi-final round of the season ending grand finale. Sela suffered a straight sets defeat with the identical
scores at the hands of the second seed Rui Machado in his previous match of the Yellow Group but proved to be the deserving winner on Friday.
Sela finished at number nine in the ATP Year-to-Date Challenger Tour Rankings for the season, winning three championship titles. He was tied at 2-1 with Machado and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the Yellow Group but the set won-loss ratio
of 4-2 let him through to the round of four in the mega event.
“It was a good match again, like my first game [against Stebe],” commented Sela after confirming his spot in the semi-finals of the tournament. “Yesterday I was really tired in the court and that didn't help, but I made my part
and I’m happy to be in the semi-finals; hopefully I can make it to Sunday. The tournament has a really good level.”
Bachinger put up a pathetic run in the inaugural edition of the ATP Challenger Tour Finals, losing all the three matches in the Round Robin to remain fruitless. He proved a total mismatch against the fourth seed Sela in his last
encounter and was never found in control of his game. The German utterly failed to register a single break point in the whole matchup, while suffering four out of eight from his belligerent competitor.
Sela clinched 22 out of 28 first serve points in the matchup and was equally good on his return game to come out as the winner. His first breakthrough of the evening came in the third game and another one in the seventh game left
him serving for the opener at 5-2. The Israeli serve out of the first set at 6-2 and continued his winning impetus in the next set as well breaking his opener early once again to lead 3-1. The fourth seed delivered a decisive blow in the seventh game and then
served out of the contest at 6-2, booking a date with the top seed home favourite, Thomaz Bellucci, in the semi-final round of the ATP Challenger Tour Finals.
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