Filippo Volandri storms past Stefano Galvani into last four – Todi Challenger 2011
Filippo Volandri and compatriot Stefano Galvani, Italian, faced each other at the quarter-final match of the Todi Challenger 2011 on Friday, 16th September. Playing at the Umbria Tennis Centre, Italy, the second seed
of the tour, Volandri, took an hour and 52 minutes before he walked up at the centre of the court with his hands up high, winning 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-0.
The two Italians rolled up their sleeves and stepped down the Classic clay court with a huge applaud from the stands. However, only one could have gone on qualifying for the semis while the other had to go down. Comparatively,
Volandri had better stats as he had been maintaining his rankings and had a better last 10 match run. On the other hand, Galvani, unseeded, had a lucky drive through the tour until he reached the real deal.
Winning the toss, Volandri started off with serving first in the match. Surprising as it could get, the second seed went straight down in the start. Breaking early, Galvani stood to serve the second game of the set, however, fell
short as the 30-year-old broke back to level the scores at one each.
Ranked world No.92, Volandri then served to get ahead, yet he was broken again by the 34-year-old compatriot. Galvani continued to command the set, however, Volandri pulled back levelling as he broke back the older countryman
in game 10, losing a break in 11 and again breaking back to ending up in a tiebreak.
Galvani, world No.192, outran the tiebreak and took away the set winning 7-6(2) and onto the second set.
With the Volandri machine charged and on its run, the 30-year-old started off with an utterly ugly beating to the fellow countryman. Breaking early, game 1, Volandri took out the first four games with breakpoints in game 1 and
3. With scores at 4-0, Galvani finally got a breather game win, however, that was the last of what he could achieve then.
Easing through the next two games, the world No.92 ended the set with a stunning breakpoint win, 6-1, and levelled up the match scores 1-1. Moving onto the decider, Volandri stood to serve the opener with a bigger bomb to drop
next.
Serving out the first game, the 30-year-old started up breaking his challenger consecutively. Although winning the first set, Galvani ended up have a bagel beating. Succeeding to grab straight 6 games with 3 breakpoint wins, Volandri
blistered the 34-year-old winning the set and the match 2-1.
The 2nd seed went on qualifying for the round of 4 of the Todi Challenger to battle fourth seeded, Benoit Paire for a spot in the title match.
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