Giovanni Lapentti defeats Nicolas Massu in the first round of the Seguros Bolívar Open
28-year-old Ecuadorian, Giovanni Lapentti won his first round match against Nicolas Massu of Chile at the Seguros Bolívar Open at Barranquilla, Colombia on Wednesday night. Lapentti concluded his straight sets victory at 6-2, 7-5,
in just one hour and forty four minutes to advance to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event.
Lapentti finally avenged his defeats of 2008 and 2009 Challenger Tour from Massu, defeating him for the first time in his ATP career. The Ecuadorian cruised through the opening set of the game but had to fight hard to bag victory
in the second set.
Both contestants delivered their first serve with identical accuracy of 58 per cent but the Ecuadorian veteran was brilliant on collecting crucial points in the game. Lapentti won 27 out of 31 first serve points and fired six thudding
aces to the opponent’s court. Massu was led down by his unforced errors, which include four costly double faults in the contest.
Lapentti gave away just one break point to his opponent and crafted 12 chances of his own to break serve, converting four opportunities out of them. Although his first serve left something to be desired in the opener, the Ecuadorian
collected 92 per cent points on it to get the competitive advantage. He had a quick start to the match and broke Massu early to lead 4-2 in the first set. Lapentti fully capitalized upon his opponent’s bleak game and stung his second serve break to close out
the opening set at 6-2.
A more competitive second set was witnessed as Massu posed some solid resistance to his opponent. He broke the Ecuadorian serve once but dropped her serve twice and kept on spilling out errors to remain on the losing side. Lapentti
concluded his win at 7-5, as Massu thumped another back hand into the net.
Lapentti will be facing the seventh seed Italian, Paolo Lorenzi in the second round at Barranquilla. The Italian won his match against James Ward of Britain in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.
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