Gianluca Naso cruises past Alessio Di Mauro into the 2nd round – Tennislife Cup 2011 CH
In an all Italian match, wildcard entrant Gianluca Naso eased past Alessio Di Mauro in a straight sets at the 2011 Tennislife Cup, an ATP Challenger Tour event taking place on the outdoor clay courts in Napoli,
Italy. He registered a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory over his 34-year-old countryman to reach the second round on Monday.
24-year-old Naso warded off late resistance to earn a straight set victory over his compatriot in two hours and nine minutes on their first meeting. He had now secured a second round spot at this Italian challenger event.
Ranked 245th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Naso quickly bagged in entire serves without facing any breakpoint. He capitalised on two out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage in the
sixth and eighth game to win the opener with a 6-2 success. Naso also formulated a magnificent first serve share of 65 percent as compared to his compatriot’s 39 percent and registered a superb 85 percent win on it.
Di Mauro, ranked 34 spots above him in the ATP rankings, founded his rhythm again in the final set. After Naso held his opening serve, he unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next three games in a row. Later, the higher
ranked Italian held his remaining serves until he broke again in the seventh game to make the score line 5-2.
After this, the youngster made an epic comeback and wiped out next four games in a row to subsequently drag the set to a tie-breaker. He dominated in it to triumph with a 7-6(5) victory.
Naso saved two out of four breakpoints came across and capitalised in on two out of eight breakpoint chances to his advantage. In addition to this, he manipulated a higher first serve share of 67 percent as compared to his rival’s
53 percent and earned an acceptable 58 percent win on it.
Up next for the Italian is the winner of the match between sixth seeded Portuguese Federico Gil and Kazakh Yuri Schukin. The wild card entrant can advance further if he improves his returns and maintain his composure.
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