Marco Trungelliti dodges Pedro Sousa in last qualifying round – Sao Leopoldo Challenger 2011
Second seed Argentine, Marco Trungelliti, went head-to-head with the Portuguese sixth seed, Pedro Sousa, in the last qualifying round of the Sao Leopoldo Challenger tournament, contested in Brazil, on Sunday October 30th. Both players seeing each other for the first time at the courts and after an epic three-setter of two hours and seventeen minutes, it was the second seed that clinched the main round draw with a score of 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.
21-year-old Argentine had lost three of his last nine encounters whilst his opponent had lost four; it was supposed to be a good battle seeing the form of both players but Argentine had a slight advantage of his superior ranking. Overall it was an enthralling battle between the two contenders and crowd loved every bit of it.
First set started off slowly but picked up pace in between when both players broke each other serves in succession and pushed the score to four games apiece. Sixth seed held his nerves and capitalized on his serve to take the lead and then broke in the final game of the set to clinch the first set.
Surprisingly top seed couldn’t secure even half of his points on his serves while his opponent maintained a decent first serve success rate of 68% and pocketed twenty-nine out of fifty-two. The crucial last game break helped him hint an upset and put pressure on his opponent.
Second set kicked with breaks traded between the two players in the first two games and then again in the fifth and sixth game to push the score to 3-3. Players met blow to blow and pushed the score further to 6-6 by holding on to their serves.
There was a moment in the set when Argentine could take the lead but his two double-faults in succession ruined it all and the set was now to be decided with a tie-breaker. The stage was set for the Argentine once again to pull up an upset but he again double-faulted for the fourth time and helped his competitor to push the match into the third set.
The third set was a carbon copy of the second set as both players exchanged breaks in the first two games once again. The neck-to-neck battle continued for another four games and score was pushed to three games apiece.
Sousa again committed a double-fault and handed the game to his competitor who clinched the next game to push the score 5-3 in his favour. Argentine couldn’t break again and lost the game that he was so close of winning it, at one stage.
Marco Trungelliti marches on into the main round of the tournament where he faces-off against Brazilian, Julio Silva.
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