Facundo Bagnis and Paolo Lorenzi into the quarterfinals of the Seguros Bolivar Open
The crowd was in for another upset at the Seguros Bolivar Open second round as Facundo Bagnis of Argentina outclassed the fourth seed Alejandro Falla of Colombia to advance on to the quarter-final of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger
Tour event at Barranquilla, Colombia. Bagnis settled the final score at 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and in 2 hours and 18 minutes, on Thursday night.
The 21-year-old Argentine recovered from an opening set slump with great mastery to get hold of the later two sets in the contest. The home favourite Falla was led down by his bleak serve of 57 per cent accuracy and 5 expensive double faults in the game.
Bagnis was equally poor with his first serve accuracy, conceding 10 double faults, yet clinching crucial points to get the competitive advantage in the contest.
Falla took hold of the opener early with some cracking forehand winners and solid defence. His Argentine opponent equally matched his aggression and pinched three break points in the first, falling one serve break short of Falla, who belted four. Despite
of his three double faults, the Colombian eventually took the first set at 6-4 to get one up in the game.
A devastating turnaround came in the following set as four serve breaks from Bagnis left the Colombian competitor answerless. The Argentine coughed four double faults but won 31 out of 54 total points to bag the second set at 6-2.
Falla had lost his steam by the decisive set and it appeared an easy task for Bagnis to take him down by striking two serve breaks and closing victory at 6-2. The Argentine has to go through Paolo Lorenzi in the quarter-final of the Seguros Bolivar open
before getting a place in the semis.
The seventh seed Lorenzi from Italy defeated the in-form Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador as he forfeited from the contest for the reason of injury in the other second round match of the evening. The curtailed version of the game took two hours and forty minutes
with Lapentti leading the game at 7-6(8), 3-6, 2-0, when he was to retire from the match.
The contest was evenly poised as both men had won one set a piece and the Ecuadorian was leading the third set. The hard-fought opener was taken by Lapentti in the tie breaker round but a terrific comeback was seen by Lorenzi, who outplayed his opponent
in style. The Italian delivered 82 per cent first serve on target and won 72 per cent points on it, breaking the opponent three times to close the second set at 6-3.
Lapentti broke the Italian serve in the very first serve game to lead 2-0 but his shoulder injury forced him to withdraw from the contest, giving Lorenzi an easy pass to the quarter-finals.
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