Marcel Granollers bulldozes Matteo Viola in the second round – Tunis Open 2012 CH
Top seed, Marcel Granollers of Spain, scored an easy win over Italy’s Matteo Viola, ranked 161st in the world, in the second round at the Tunis Open on Thursday. It took the Spaniard just an hour and 23 minutes to thrash
Viola in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
Granollers gained lead straightaway, as he claimed a breakthrough in the very first game of the match and consolidated on it to go up 2-0. The Spaniard hit another blow in the ninth game and clinched it 6-3.
The Barcelona, Spain resident delivered 61 percent of the first serves and grabbed 11 of the 14 points on them in the opener. He did not face any break threat and utilised two of the five opportunities he created on Viola’s serve.
Granollers struck in the second game of the second set to take a 2-0 lead but dropped his next serve, reducing it to 2-1. The Spaniard did not lose even a single game after that, winning four in a row to capture it 6-1.
The 6ft 3in tall gave a decent performance on serves, as he kept his first delivery percentage at 60 and bagged nine of the 12 points on them. The right-hander won most of the return points, snatching eight of the 12 first and
six of the nine second reply points.
Granollers needed a wild card entry to enter the tournament, as he made a late decision to feature at this challenger event. The Spaniard is aiming to capture his first ATP Challenger Tour title since October 2010.
The 26-year-old partnered his countryman, Marc Lopez to reach the title match at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell last week, losing to the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-2, 6-7(7), 8-10 in the final.
Though, Granollers went down early in the singles competition, getting upset by the then world number 117, Frederico Gil of Portugal, in twin sets 2-6, 2-6 in the opening match.
The Spaniard is pitted against compatriot, Roberto Bautista-Agut, in the quarter-final. Bautista-Agut stunned world number 97, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Argentina, in the second round.
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