Guido Pella stuns Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo to reach the semis – ATP Challenger Tour Finals 2012 CH
Seeded at number seven in the tournament draw, Guido Pella carried on his dream run at the season-ending grand finale, ATP Challenger Tour Finals in Brazil, and made it to the semi-finals to surprise everyone. He outplayed the
fourth seeded Spaniard, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, in his last Round Robin match of the Green Group to enter the final-four round of the coveted event.
Pella took one hour and 26 minutes to wrap up the contest in straight sets, 7-6(4), 6-2, driving Hidalgo out of the tournament with ease. He took off his campaign at the ATP Challenger Tour Finals in a stunning fashion, defeating
the top seeded home favourite, Thomaz Bellucci, in the opening encounter. He went astray in his second match against the sixth seeded Romanian, Adrian Ungur, losing to him in a tight three-setter. Pella had to win his Thursday’s match against the superior-ranked
Hidalgo and he delivered his best to register the surprise.
Hidalgo also needed to win his third Round Robin match to qualify for the semis, as he lost one encounter against Ungur to fall on the brink of elimination. He couldn’t present his natural game in the Thursday’s matchup and submitted
to Pella in straight sets to end his voyage at the elite Challenger Tour event.
The contest took off with an early break point conversion from Hidalgo, who raced away to a 3-0 lead in no time. Pella struggles hard to pull back the strings in the seventh game and levelled the score line to 4-4 subsequently.
No more break points were witnessed in the rest of the set and a tie-break round came into play. Pella continued with his aggressive approach in the decider and reeled off a crucial mini-break to seal the set number one at 7-6(4).
Hidalgo kept labouring to strike back in the following set but couldn’t find an opening to do so. He held his initial two serve in the set before Pella launched his onslaught, breaking his serve twice in succession to rocket away
to victory at 6-2. He will take on the third seed Hanescu in the semi-final match on Friday.
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