Juan Ignacio Chela ousts Andreas Seppi in quarterfinal – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011
Friday, 23rd September kicked off with the top seed, Juan Ignacio Chela opening the round of eight matches of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011 at Romania, Bucharest. Playing the seventh seeded world No. 51, Andreas
Seppi, the Argentine nailed the Italian 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and fifty four minutes match to qualify into the semi-finals.
Although Chela has had an amazing tour and is also one of the oldest players to rank inside the top 25, the 32-year-old Argentine has had a bumpy season this year as he fell short in the US Open, Cincinnati and Kitzbuhel.
After winning the service toss, Chela opted to serve first against the seventh seeded Italian, who is much younger than Chela. The clay court being the Argentine’s play ground, he held his serve in the first round of the opening
set. Matching his opponent’s style, Seppi too held his serve in the second game and the score progressed on even terms in the first four games to round off at 2-2.
Suddenly a breakpoint opportunity surfaced for Chela and he was first to break but his adversary was not in the mood to let him take the upper hand and Seppi broke back immediately in the following game. For the remaining four
games, each player broke his rival twice, the chasing kept on till the score was squared off at 5-5.
Finally, in the eleventh game Chela broke the chain before his rival could and held his serve by smashing an ace at 40-30. The 32-year-old defending champion was on a roll, and breaking the Italian for the fourth time in the set,
Chela eased away with the twelfth game and the opening set leading the match 1-0.
With a slap on the face ending to the first set, the number seven seeded Italian moved on to give a better performance in the second set. However, what he had mustered fell short against the unstoppable Chela.
Serving for the second set was again Chela and the two were successfully able to place themselves on the scoreboard by winning on their respective serves in the first two games. The players kept hoping for either one to slip and
a lucky break came for Seppi as he broke his adversary for first in the third game but it was a ephemeral break because Chela was quick to break back in the very next game, rounding the score to 2-2.
Dominating through the set, Chela went on with lightning speed but Seppi was like a thunder roar just behind is challenger. The two matched a blow for a blow until finally in the eighth game Chela broke his rival like shattered
glass as he then went on to seeing an en-route victory by holding his serve for the last time in the ninth game.
Winning effortlessly, 32-year-old Chela is now looking to record his 30th match win of the season against Pablo Andujar, the fourth seeded Spaniard in the semi-final of the event.
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