Matteo Viola trounces Javier Marti in the second round – Trnava Challenger 2012
Eighth seeded, Matteo Viola, gave a straight-set upset to the Spanish challenger, Javier Marti, in the second round of the Arimex Challenger 2012, held at Slovakia. The Italian contender summed up his win in a total of two hours and 15 minutes to advance further in the tournament.
Ranked 155th in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Viola displayed his excellent run of form and broke Marti’s initial serve to register a 2-love lead. However, the Spaniard did not give up and marched forward to break the Italian’s serve for the second time in the seventh game, markings 4-3 lead. Both players proved to be a tough challenge for one another, as the momentum kept oscillating throughout the set. The right-handed Italian nudged forward to close the set with a 7-6(1) score after the tiebreaker round.
The world number 195th Spanish contender had a lower initial serve accuracy of 67 percent, securing 15 of 32 first and 8 of 16 second serve points. Luckily, he capitalized on all the break points offered to him and Marti bagged away only two of six to lose the opener. The Italian professional had a better initial serve accuracy of 72 percent, converting 19 of 28 first and five of 11 second serve points.
Both the players were unable to hold their initial serves but the 20-year-old drew the first blood by securing a 2-1 lead. Similar to the previous set, the two players continuously levelled their score line after every alternate game and the close battle in the set was concluded with a tiebreaker of win at 7-6(7) for Viola.
The higher ranked Spanish professional had an average first serve precision of 62 percent, pocketing away 15 of 29 first and six of 18 second delivery points. On the other hand, Voila delivered 75 percent initial serve on target, securing 20 of 39 first and six of 13 second serve points. He snatched away four out of eight break points offered, whereas his challenger managed to follow the lead of three of seven points.
In the next match of the Challenger event, the Italian participant will contest against winner of the match Pedro Sousa and Andreas Haider-Maurer.
Tags: