Facundo Arguello survives resurgent Ricardo Hocevar to reach the quarterfinals – Manta Open 2011 CH
In arguably the most intriguing second round match of the day at Manta Open 2011, Facundo Arguello of Argentina used his all-court game to survive the powerful ground game of Ricardo Hocevar in a three-set marathon 7-6(4), 5-7,
6-2.
With Arguello failing early in Buenos Aires and Hocevar making the quarterfinals of Brazil F1, it seemed an upset was brewing, but the Argentinian came back from the brink to beat the Brazilian in three sets, taking a little over
two hours and fifty minutes of play.
After the Argentinian player tucked away a close first set, the possibility of an upset looked pretty obvious as his opponent’s serve and groundstrokes starting to hit their target, storming through the second set in no time. But
Arguello quickly regained his control over the match in the decider with his full arsenal on display, winning four straight games to clinch his second round victory.
Both men had never met before coming into the match, but now the Argentinian leads their head-to-head score to 1-0.
The match up against Hocevar, with no disrespect, was meant to be a straight forward one, instead Arguello was sloppy, committing seemingly endless errors as his foot work was below average and his timing seemed, at times, worse.
Arguello was not dictating play from the baseline and his forehand totally abandoned him as he was forced to play a tiebreak in the first set by the intelligent Brazilian. However, he did manage to get through the first set but
the second set just had the different story, losing it with a difference of five points and tying the score at one set apiece.
As the third set unfolded, Arguello looked more offensive, although he had some bad luck in the second set, he quickly recovered from break down and was always in cruise control by winning the third set with six games to two.
The Argentinian clinched his straight sets win, by scoring 67 percent of points on service, 37 percent of points on return and a total of 108 of 208 points during the whole match.
He now moves on into the quarterfinals of the tournament where he will face South African Raven Klaasen, who beat the Colombian qualifier, Nicolas Barrientos to set up a clash with the eighth-seeded Arguello.
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