Marco Chiudinelli edges past Joao Sousa to reach quarterfinals – Open Castilla y Leon 2011 CH
Unseeded in the tournament, Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland won his encounter against Joao Sousa of Portugal in the second round of Open Castilla y Leon on Thursday afternoon in Segovia, Spain.
It was an entertaining contest, with good tennis played by the two competitors overall. Chiudinelli wrapped up victory in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(6), to make it to the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
Challenger Tour event. Sousa fought valiantly for one hour and forty two minutes before he crumbled against the furious power hitting from the Swiss opponent.
Chiudinelli took hold of the opener convincingly and got one set up in the game but had to face some serious resistance from his opponent in the following set. Sousa went on neck-to-neck with the Swiss to drag the second set into
a tie breaker round but he failed to sustain his momentum in the decider and eventually succumbed to let Chiudinelli away with victory.
The unseeded Swiss wrapped up 42 out of 56 first serve points in the matchup, with his opponent lagging behind by collecting 31 out of 43 points to finish on the losing side. Sousa had his chances in the game but his error-ridden
game didn’t allow him to cash them in. He squandered away six break opportunities in the matchup and converted just one chance, while suffering two from Chiudinelli.
The first set took off steadily, with both men holding their serve in the opening six games. Chiudinelli drew the first blood in the seventh game to break the Portuguese serve with a cracking forehand winner down the line. The
Swiss then held his lead to wrap up the opening set at 6-4 to get one up in the contest.
Sousa finally cracked in his first serve break of the day after fighting three deuces in the sixth game of the following set. Chiudinelli frittered away his advantage with a break point conversion in the very next game, tying the
scores at 5-5 and heading towards a tie breaker round. Once the scores got dead locked at 6-6, a tie breaker round was imposed, with Sousa labouring desperately to remain alive in the competition. After a stiff contest in the decider, Chiudinelli finally wrapped
up victory at 7-6(6), to advance to the quarter-final round of the tournament, where he will face the fifth seeded Russian, Teymuraz Gabashvili for a place in the semis.
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