Nicolas Almagro defeats Thomaz Bellucci, advances to the Abierto Mexicano Telcel final
World No.13 and 3rd seed, Spain’s Nicolas Almagro battled past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 7-6, 6-4 in their semifinal match at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel today (February 26).
In the match played at Acapulco, Mexico, the Spaniard struggled for dominance due to an excellent fight by his opponent, before finally closing the match out in a deceptively difficult setting.
Almagro, 25, has been in top shape recently, having won two tournaments in the last two weeks. This win extends his unbeaten streak to 13 matches. If he succeeds in taking the Abierto Mexicano Telcel trophy home as well, he will be the first player ever
to win three tournaments on the “Golden Swing” section of the ATP tour.
This section, played all over Latin America, features four Clay Court tournaments. Telcel, widely known as the Crowning Jewel of the Golden Swing, will definitely be a major feather in Almagro’s cap, since it’s the most competitive of the Latin American
events.
Almagro’s form coming into the match had been amazing. His opponent was not doing too badly either. Bellucci has been active these past weeks, getting to the Quarters of both Costa Do Sauipe, held in his home country, and Santiago, held in Chile.
Currently ranked 36th in the world, he is showing a resurgence of the form that took him to the World No.21 position on the ATP rankings in 2010. In this tournament alone, he took out second seed Fernando Verdasco in their first round contest.
As such, he was expected to provide some challenge to Verdasco’s countryman Almagro today.
In the first set, that challenge was indeed provided. Bellucci played competitive tennis, serving quite well. He landed in 64 percent of his first serves correctly and took 67 percent of all the points on his own serve.
Almagro was slightly behind in both aspects, getting 61 per cent of his own first serves right and winning 65 per cent of the points he served on. Despite his slightly better show, the Brazilian failed to break. He squandered three break points, and that
led the players to a tie-break. Here Almagro raised his game a notch and after getting a mini-break quite easily, won the decider 7-4.
The next set saw both players serving a little worse. Almagro once served exactly 50 percent of the time, while the Brazilian managed a close 48 percent. The percentage of points won on serve saw an increase for both players, with Almagro converting 77 per
cent of his serves into points and Bellucci bettering him with 78 per cent.
The 3rd seed did win one more point during the set than his opponent though, and this point was a breaking opportunity. With a break in hand, the Spaniard shored up his weaknesses and served the set out, taking it 6-4 and wrapping up the match
too.
As Almagro looks to complete a historic treble, he awaits the winner of the other semifinal being held today. Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine and David Ferrer of Spain, the top seed, are battling it out for the other final spot. Facing either of them would
be a challenge for the red-hot 25-year-old, but then, records aren’t made without challenges being overcome.
Tags: