Filippo Volandri drowns Rui Machado in opener – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011
Gaining up his form after a tough season start, Filippo Volandri, the unseeded Italian, succeeded in ousting his opening round counterpart, Rui Machado, of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011. Playing at the heart of Romania, Bucharest
Volandri blistered the Portuguese world No.70 in straight sets winning 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 25 minutes to chair round 2 of the ATP Tour 250 event.
Ranked world No.86, the Italian gave a shocker to his higher ranked challenger and knocking him out effortlessly. Volandri, thought had a relatively bad season start, came back in his form as he made it to the Todi Challenger final
but lost to Carlos Berlocq.
Adding to Machado’s advantage, the 27-year-old had a 2-0 lead over the Italian world No.86 in head-to-head records. The fixture started off at the central court with Machado winning the service toss and serving first.
Opening up the match, Machado served out the first game and put himself on the scoreboard, 1-0. Volandri followed up winning the second game switching back the serve to the 27-year-old. The two then dropped the first bombs on each
other as Volandri broke Machado only to be broken back immediately, levelling up the scores at 2-2.
Equalling the scores once again, the two won one game each, 3-3, before the 30-year-old Italian made his move. Striking with a breakpoint, Volandri extended his lead and dominated the set with a 4-3 lead. With 2 games left for
him to win the set, the Italian went spectacular and he tackled out the Portuguese with a serve-n-break technique taking away the set 6-3 and led the match 1-0.
Moving on with set 2, Volandri took out the opening game with 2 game points and led the scoreboard, 1-0. With a frustrated rival on the other side, the Italian went cheeky and broke-n-served to gain a 3-0 lead. Machado then served
out game 4 and struck back for the first time breaking the 30-year-old in game 5 to cut down the lead to 3-2.
Wondering he would level the scores and might as well level the match scores, Machado served in game 6 and went down instantly. Volandri broke back extending his lead to 4-2 following with a win on his serve next, 5-2.
Out of the last two game of the second set, Volandri eased off with game 9 winning the set with the same score, 6-3, as of the first set, and won the match with mere difficulty. The Italian now moves on to the 2nd round
to play the 3rdseed, Marcel Granollers.
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