Ivan Navarro crawls past Jaroslav Pospisil into second round – BVA Open 2011 CH
Spanish Ivan Navarro faced severe resistance from the Czech, Jaroslav Pospisil, in the first round of the BVA Open Challenger tournament, contested in Brazil, on Tuesday October 25th. It was an epic match that lasted
for almost two hours and fifty-one minutes and finally won by the World No.180, Navarro. The final score for the thrilling three-setter was 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
The match tilted one way to another at numerous stages and no one could depict any outcome for sure. An enthralling performance by Pospisil after such a feeble run of form was one of the most exciting facts of the match. Crowd
loved every bit of it and no one moved an inch from their seats until it was officially over.
The Spanish was enjoying his time at the court and was winning most of his matches in recent times but this was one of the most difficult victories for him. The neck-to-neck contest was the essence of the match and it was a the
matter of handling pressure and calming your nerves at the end.
Both players were vastly experienced and had faced each other four times before. Spanish lead the head-to-head tally with 3-1 and had a slight psychological advantage of his ranking and history with Pospisil.
First set was clearly dominated by the match winner who ruled his opponent in every department of the game. He broke his opponent’s serve on three different occasions and completely bamboozled him with his variety of shots and
guile.
Spanish struck an ace and earned a couple of points on successive double-faults from his age fellow. Apparently it was pretty easy going for the Spanish in the first set and he seemed to finish it off in the next set.
Trailing one set down and failing to make any sort of impact in the first set, Czech came back hard at his opponent and flabbergasted him by his organised and enhanced game play. He struck an ace and broke his competitor’s serve
thrice to push him on back foot.
It was something that was missing from his game for a long time. He won the set with a massive difference of nine points and registered an impressive first and second serve success rate of 62% and 57% respectively.
Stage was set for an epic final encounter between the two and both players were geared up for the challenge. No breaks were scored in the first eight games of the set and that pushed the score to four games apiece.
The turning point in the set were two unforced errors in the face of double-faults that came in succession from Pospisil who couldn’t save the first break in the ninth attempt and lost the game on his serve.
Navarro grabbed this golden opportunity with both hands and halted the progress of his opponent. The severe resistance came to an end but not before the Spanish was tested to his limits.
The sixth seeded Ricardo Mello will face-off against the winner of this epic encounter, Ivan Navarro, in the second round of the tournament.
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