Filippo Volandri cruises into the title match at the Tennis Napoli Cup
Second seeded Italian Filippo Volandri slew fourth seeded Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer with a bagel on Friday. He registered a 6-4, 6-0 win over the 24-year-old Austrian to book a final spot at 2011 Tennis Napoli Cup in Naples,
Italy.
World number eighty-two, Volandri hasn’t had much progress this season but displayed awe-inspiring skills at Barletta challenger where he reached final before losing to Slovene Aljaz Bedene. He carried the same spark in this ATP
Challenger event and overpowered Canadian Peter Polansky, Belarusian Uladzimir Ignatik and Dutch Igor Sijsling in the pre semi-final rounds.
This was their first face to face and Volandri downed the Austrian, ranked nine places down Italian, in ninety-four minutes to advance into the final at Tennis Club Napoli. In the opening set, the Italian held her opening serve
spectacularly and saved the only breakpoint he faced. The Italian seed found twelve breakpoint opportunities of which he converted one to his advantage to seal the set with a 6-4 victory.
The 29-year-old perfected his gameplay in the second set as he produced a higher first serve share of 88 percent and registered an amazing 79 percent win on it. He unleashed his flurry of ground strokes to reel off six games in
a row and eventually clinched with a bagel. Volandri conceded zero breakpoint and converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to help him win comfortably.
The Austrian on the other side of net showed dismal performance as he committed many unforced errors and three double faults. He squandered the only breakpoint opportunity clobbered and saved thirteen out of seventeen breakpoints
faced. Despite showing top form at Caltanissetta where he won the title and making semi-final berth at Barletta, Haider-Maurer was outclassed by the Italian to exit in the semis here at Naples.
Up next for the Italian is Thomas Schoorel of Netherlands who upset fifth seeded Czech Ivo Minar in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
The 22-year-old Schoorel rallied past the Czech by a 6-4, (4)6-7, 6-4 victory on another court in two hours and twenty-five minutes. Regardless of losing two serves and producing a lower first serve share in the opening set, the
Dutchman broke Minar’s serve three times to win the first set.
Schoorel lost his winning ways into the second set as he exchanged a break and took the set to tiebreaker where he trailed.
The Dutch got back on track in the final set where he saved all four breakpoints faced and converted one out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the match.
Tags: