Juan Ignacio Chela triumphs over Marcel Granollers to advance into semis – Bet-At-Home Cup 2011
Top seeded Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela eased past seventh seeded Spaniard Marcel Granollers in straight sets at the Bet-At-Home Cup 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event held in Kitzbuhel, Austria. He registered a 6-3, 6-4
victory over the exhausted Granollers, who played his second round match earlier that day, to advance into the semi-finals on Thursday.
Ranked 23rd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Chela outclassed the Spaniard, ranked 10 places below him, in almost one and half hour on their first meeting. He secured a last four spot and took lead
in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Granollers after this victory.
The top ranked Argentinean made a thunderous entry at the Tennis stadium Kitzbuhel as he earned the desiderated break in the very first game. Later he kept his entire serves through exquisite forehands from his arsenal of skills
and broke the Spaniard’s serve again in the last game to clinch the set with a 6-3 win.
31-year-old Chela lost his ways in the final set. He gifted away his serve in the opening game and eventually fell 2-0 down. However, he roared back in the fourth game and managed to square the scores at 2-2. The Argentinean later
held his remaining serves and broke the youngster’s serve again in the tenth game to bag the set by winning six games to four.
Overall, Chela spilled few errors, manifest 70 percent first serve share which was slightly higher than Granollers’ 67 percent and registered a tremendous 80 percent win on it. In addition to this, he saved one out of two breakpoints
faced and capitalised on four out of ten breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Despite being exhausted after playing his second round match against a Croatian qualifier, 25-year-old Granollers displayed solid tennis in this last eight clash. He took two hours and five minutes to battle past Croat Antonio
Veic in a three set thriller. The Spaniard made quick in-roads after earning a bagel in the opening set. Although he lost his ways in the second set after suffering a 3-6 defeat, Granollers re-focused in the decider to pull out a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
Up next for the highest ranked player of this clay court tournament is another Spaniard, Albert Montanes who slew Colombian Santiago Giraldo with a breadstick to reach this spot.
The Spaniard broke Giraldo’s serve twice to earn the breadstick in the first set and warded off the Colombian’s resistance in the second set tie-breaker to register a 6-1, 7-6(0) win in one hour and twenty minutes.
Tags: