Paolo Lorenzi outmuscles Gastao Elias in the opening Round Robin match – ATP Challenger Tour Finals
Ranked 63rd in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Rankings, Paolo Lorenzi consolidated his straight sets win, 7-5, 6-2 against the Portuguese Challenger, Gastao Elias, in the round robin of the
ATP Challenger Tour Finals held at the indoor hard courts of Brazil. The Italian contender jolted down his lead in nearly one hour and 30 minutes on the eve of Tuesday.
The duo faced each other in July 2012 at the clay courts of Caltanissetta Challenger. The Portuguese professional gave a straight set shocker, 7-6(6) 6-3, to the higher ranked opponent at his home ground in the first round.
The 22-year-old Portuguese held his initial serve and manifested decent start of the opener. Despite of his lower rank, he nudged forward by capitalizing on Lorenzi’s initial serve and pocketed away the opening two games, marking
a 2-0 lead. The score line squared down to 2-all after the fourth game. Nonetheless, Elias did not lose hope and battled forward with a strong resolve to dominate. The two contenders continuously oscillated the lead between themselves. The score line evened
out to 5-all in the 10th game. The Italian senior took a flying start towards the end and snatched the last two games, marking a 7-5 lead.
In the second set, the right-hander Portuguese contender struggled hard to avenge his former loss but the Italian veteran cashed on his serve in the third game. This completely crushed Elias’ confidence because he was unable to
withstand the transcending pressure. Lorenzi skilfully held his serve the entire time, exhibiting his superior experience in the competition. As the game progressed, he bagged away all the games without causing any delay. Eventually, he jumped up to secure
the last three games in a row and marked the match closure with a 6-2 win.
The world number 144, Elias, had a below average initial serve precision of 38 percent. He converted a reasonable score of six of nine first and five of 15 second serve points. On the other hand, the 30-year-old, Lorenzi, attained
53 percent first serve accuracy. He secured nine of 10 first and seven of nine second serve points to celebrate his win.
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