Leonardo Mayer upsets Rui Machado in the semis – Trani Cup 2011 CH
A huge upset was witnessed at Trani, Italy, when the top seeded Portuguese contestant, Rui Machado crashed out of the competition against the unseeded Argentine, Leonardo Mayer, in the semi-final of Trani Cup on Saturday afternoon.
The competition was played on the clay courts of Trani, with the top seeded Machado suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mayer in straight sets 4-6, 0-6, to end his voyage at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
Challenger Tour tournament. The Argentine took one hour and nineteen minutes of play to wrap up an emphatic victory and forced his way to the final of the tournament to have a shot at the championship title.
Machado, who has been in a destructive form throughout the tournament, failed to put up any serious challenge to his unseeded opponent and eventually submitted in the second set to let him to the final. The Portuguese hung in the
opening set for a while before dropping it in the last moments but exhibited a pathetic performance in the following set, utterly failing to hold serve in any of his games. He was absolutely blown away by the Argentine in the second set and suffered three
straight break points before surrendering.
The opening set took off steadily, with both men playing cautious tennis and avoiding risky manoeuvres. A regular game was witnessed which took the scores to 5-4, with Mayer leading the set. The Argentine clinched 23 out of 27
first serve points in the opening set and was equally good with his return game as well. It appeared as if the opener is heading towards a tie breaker round but a very timely serve break from Mayer proved lethal for the top seed, as the Argentine closed out
the set at 6-4 to get one up in the contest.
The next set was an all-Argentine show, with Mayer dominating every second of play to drive his opponent out of the competition. Mayer launched a series of forays upon the top seed rival and stung three consecutive serve breaks
to rocket away to victory in the most authoritative manner at 6-0. A total of 102 points were played in the entire matchup and Mayer secured 63 out of them to reach the final of the tournament, where he will play against the third seeded Belgian competitor,
Steve Darcis, for the singles title. Darcis outplayed Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy in the semis to meet Mayer in the final encounter.
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