Horacio Zeballos dumps Felipe Mantilla to reach the second round - Bucaramanga Challenger 2012
Argentine tennis ace, Horacio Zeballos, dumped the Colombian teenager, Felipe Mantilla, in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to secure a berth in the second round of the Bucaramanga Challenger. The first half of the match remained very exciting
but the late one was completely dominated by the third seed Argentine. It was his second triumph over Mantilla to extend his lead to 2-0 in the head-to-head series against him.
Both players had faced real tough times at the courts. The Colombian strained extremely hard to earn some vital triumphs to his name; just three in the last ten encounters. On the other hand, Zeballos was doing relatively fine
having lost four of his last ten matches. It was clear that this game will swing in the favour of the Argentine and he looks to achieve a landmark at the start of the season by winning this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour event, gathering
some crucial points to raise his rankings.
Mantilla had a good start to the match with the first breakthrough in the opening game. He doubled his lead by holding on to his serve and capitalized on the opportunity provided by his opponent. Zeballos fought back and curtailed
his trail in the fourth game with a successful serve break that featured couple of eye-startling winners down the line. No more break points were seen in the next seven games of the set as the scores were lead 6-5 by the third seed.
It was vital for the wildcard entrant to make sure he hold his serve in the twelfth game but the pressure played its part and he lost the crucial game on his serve, gifting the set to his opponent after a hard-fought battle. Trailing
one set down, Mantilla needed to bounce back strong in the initial games of the next set but his confidence was so low that led to his downfall.
Zeballos started the second set with a successful serve game that followed up with breathtaking winners to bag the second game and register a vital break point. Another serve break in the sixth game pulled curtains for the Colombian
teenager, as his opponent advances to the next round in style.
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