Dudi Sela knocks down Filippo Volandri in straight sets in 1st round – Winston-Salem Open 2011
Moving on with the 1st rounder of Winston-Salem Open 2011, Dudi Sela took on Filippo Volandri of Italy defeating him in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Playing at the Wake Forest University hard court, the two battled for 69 minutes before Sela took the win.
Playing each other for the first time, the Israeli pushed on to his win with a stronger competitive advantage as he played all his previous matches on hard court. Volandri, on the other hand, has been practicing more on clay circuit.
Although Volandri is ranked higher that the Israeli, the 29-year-old still lost as he had less idea of the fast court. Formerly ranked at world No.25 still did put up an effort to win over the Israeli.
Sela, aged 26, has been up as a pro since 2002. The right-hander has been playing most of his matches on fast courts, however, could not pull off with any major title in his career. Lately the Israeli has been less successful with his fixture that made his drop his rankings as well.
Volandri, the Orbetello Challenger winner, is countryman to David Ferrer, the current world No.5, and specializes in playing on clay. However, after winning the Orbetello Challenger, he just ran out of luck. Getting knocked out in Umag Challenger, Kitzbuhel and San Marino, the 29-year-old jumped into Winston Salem to give his luck on last shot.
Starting off with the match, Volandri served first to open up the set and took the lead, 1-0. Levelling up with the Italian, Sela won game 2 and switched the serve. Breaking the Italian in the next, Sela took lead in the set extending it further on with a win in game 4 as well. With scores at 3-1 Volandri served to cut the lead to 3-2 and further on succeeded in breaking the Israeli to level the scores at 3-3.
However, that was the last of his wins. Sela went marvellous in the next 3 games as he smashed off two breakpoints in game 7 and 9 winning the set 6-3 and taking the lead in the fixture.
The second set started off as Sela went on taking the advantage lead winning the opening game. Volandri followed his challenger to level the scores next, 1-1. The scores once again levelled up at 2-2 before Sela struck again in game 6.
Winning game 5 on his serve, Sela broke the Italian in game 6 and further on in game 8 thrashing the Italian and making a comfortable second set win, 6-2.
Winning his 1st round fixture, the Israeli qualified for the second round match of the Winston Salem Open 2011. He will now face the American favourite, John Isner, to battle it out for the 3rd round seat.
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