Juan Ignacio Chela defeats Horacio Zeballos to book a berth in the third round draws – VTR Open 2012
In an all-Argentine encounter, second seed Juan Ignacio Chela overpowered Horacio Zeballos, in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(2) in the second round of the VTR Open-Vina del Mar. The contest was played on clay courts in Chile and
lasted for an hour and 52 minutes before the Argentine veteran came out as the winner.
Both players had faced each other on four different occasions before this encounter. Surprisingly, the head-to-head scores were levelled at 2-2, despite the huge difference in the rankings of both players. Right-handed Chela
lost the first two matches during Campos do Jordao Challenger and Cali Challenger in 2009 before levelling the head-to-head scores with a victory in US Men’s Clay Court Championship 2010 and Copa Claro 2011.
Nervy start to the match witnessed both players exchanging breaks in the first two games before settling into the atmosphere and capitalizing on their serve games. At the end of the first six games, scores were pushed to
3-3 with both players going neck-to-neck.
Zeballos was the one who committed the first and only double-fault of the set in the seventh game, giving an initial advantage to his opponent. He was under pressure and failed to deliver the right shots that added two more
double-faults to his tally. Chela was not going to miss out on such a classic opportunity to break serve and he played a smart winner down the line that rounded-off the second and most vital breakthrough of the set in his favour.
Second seed Argentine mounted more pressure on his rival with a successful serve game, as the scores progressed to 5-3 in his favour. Zeballos was in the hunt for a breakthrough but he failed to find one and gifted the first
set to his opponent.
The momentum was with the superior ranked Argentine with one-set lead to his name but unfortunately he couldn’t benefit from that. Both players fought hard in search of the breakthrough throughout the second set. Zeballos
was the one who was under the cosh but he successfully saved five breakpoint opportunities to kick the set into the tie-breaker.
With immense experience under his belt, second seed Argentine took full advantage of the nervous start of his opponent and gobbled up the vital points that confirmed his triumph over his compatriot. This is his third win
on trot against Zeballos and he moves into the third round of the tournament; plays the Brazilian tennis ace, Joao Souza, in the next round match.
ds.
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