Gianluca Naso upsets eighth seeded Maximo Gonzalez in first round – BVA Open 2011 CH
Gianluca Naso of Italy squared-off against the eighth seed Argentine, Maximo Gonzalez, in the first round of the BVA Open Challenger tournament, hosted in Brazil, on Monday October 24th. It was the fourth meeting between
the two and eighth seed had won all of the previous three encounters and he was clearly the hot favourite to win this match as well. Ironically Italian pulled up an upset and won the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in just over an hour and thirty-eight minutes.
Gonzalez was in excellent form having won seven of his last nine encounters and was looking extremely threatening to make a serious mark in this tournament as well. Naso was also in superb form having lost just three of his last
nine encounters. It was clear that crowd was up for another enthralling battle to say the least.
The superior ranking, better form and pressure couldn’t dismantle the confidence of the 24-year-old youngster who knocked down the match favourite in straight sets. 28-year-old Argentine couldn’t take full benefit of the undue
pressure in his opponent of outside factors and lost the match in a very disappointing manner.
Four aces were struck in the first set; three from the winner and just one for the Argentine. First serve success rate for the Italian was terrific but he lacked accuracy in the second serve but luckily it didn’t cost him much.
He capitalized on both the breakpoint opportunities and clinched two important sets on his opponent’s serve.
The Argentine was impressive with his first and second serves but his breakpoint conversion rate was dismal; he only won one breakpoint out of the allotted three. The overall performance was pretty sub-standard and a massive lift
was required to overcome the trail of one set.
Fifty nine points were played in the first set and the eighth seeded manage to win 28 out of that and he lost the set with a minute difference of just three points. Crowd was looking forward for a good comeback from the eighth
seeded in the second set to stretch the match into the final set.
The second set was started in an exciting fashion by the Italian who scored two consecutive aces up front to make his mark and send a strong message to his opponent. There was no backup plan for the onslaught from the Italian in
the second set that raced past his opponent with a lead of 3 games to nil.
After a hard fought time on the court, the Argentine did manage to hang on and balanced the score with four games apiece. Then came the second successful break from Naso and it was end of the resistance from the eighth seed who
was knocked-out in the first round.
Gianluca Naso squares-off against the winner of the match between James Duckworth and Andre Begemann.
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