Matteo Viola breezes past Gastao Elias in 1st round - Ciudad de Guayaquil Challenger 2011
Italian Matteo Viola wiped out unseeded Portuguese Gasto Elias in the first round of the Ciudad de Guayaquil Challenger 2011.
The players had taken up the challenge on outdoor classic clay courts of the Guayaquil Tennis Club in Guayaquil, Ecuador. After battling for just sixty nine minutes, the unseeded Italian thrashed the unseeded Portuguese in straight sets of 6-1, 6-2 on Monday the 21st of November 2011.
Viola opted to serve first after he had won the service toss and he was able to reel off two consecutive games to take a mini lead of two games to love. He further increased his lead to three games is to love with a hold of serve and as he broke his adversary for the second time in the fourth game, his lead had extended to four games is to love.
During the fifth game Viola held his serve but Elias finally made a return in the sixth game with a hold of serve. Nonetheless, as the Italian held his serve for the last time in the seventh game, he clogged the opening set with a breadstick victory to go one up in the match.
The opening round was a clear cut victory for the Italian and out of the seven games played, he managed to bag six. Furthermore, he accomplished twice as many points as his adversary to take the competitive edge in the match.
Initiating the second round of the match was Elias and once again he double faulted on his serve to endorse a game to his adversary. Mean while, Viola had held his serve and then broke his adversary to reel off three games to take a mini lead.
It was in the fourth game that Elias made a return by breaking back to reduce the deficit to 1-3. In the following two games the players bartered in breaks and the score had progressed to 4-2 at the end of the sixth game.
In the seventh game Elias’ forehand went wayward and he erred. On the contrary, Viola capitalized on the break and then held his serve for the last time to clog the second set.
The Italian handled the game with extreme precision and dominated both the sets. Over all, he capitalized on six breakpoints won and he not only had a good serve but also a great return which enabled him to bag sixty one percent of his total return points in the match.
Moreover, he reserved a spot in the second round of the event where he will be facing lucky loser Guido Andreozzi or the third seeded South African Rogerio Dutra Da Silva.
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