Ricardo Mello battles past Guillaume Rufin into second round – BVA Open 2011 CH
Sixth seeded Ricardo Mello of Brazil squared-off against French, Guillaume Rufin, in the first round of the BVA Open Challenger tournament, contested in Brazil, on Tuesday October 25th. World No.109, Mello, won the match
in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-4 and took the head-to-head lead of 1-0 against his opponent. The encounter last for an hour and thirty-one minutes. Sizeable crowd had gathered to support the sixth seeded home boy, Mello.
Rufin was enjoying a good run of form having lost just two of his last nine matches whilst his opponent had lost four matches of his last nine but recently he had won five matches in a row and was looking in good shape to win this
game. Crowd was cheering for their home boy who didn’t disappoint them at all and provided them with one of his best displays.
The last two games of both sets were the turning points of the set because the sets were evenly poised at four games apiece. The crucial breaks from the winner came in the fifth games of the both sets and capitalized it with his
own serve in the next game to clinch both sets.
Brazilian maintained an amazing 68% and 67% first and second serve success rate respectively. He saved all three breakpoint opportunities allotted to his opponent and made him work hard for his points.
The slight lapse of concentration in the fifth game resulted in two double-faults from Rufin and 30-year-old Brazilian capitalized on it by clinching the remaining two points of the game and took the lead in the set. This notable
achievement was coupled with couple of aces in the final game of the set to round things off and gain a lead of one set in the match.
Second set kicked off in great fashion by the Brazilian who struck two back-to-back aces in the first game that dismantled the confidence of his competitor and placed him on the back foot.
Rufin came back by winning the second set and broke Mello’s serve in the third to take the lead of two games but Brazilian fought his way back and levelled the score with four games apiece. It was like a complete carbon copy of
the first set after the eighth game.
30-year-old Brazilian won sixty-two points in the match whilst his competitor won fifty-four. The crucial breaks in the eleventh game in both sets by the Brazilian were the most important factor that escorted him to the triumph.
His opponent did try his best to take some glory from the match but unforced errors at the critical stages of the match forced another loss to his record.
Ricardo Mello squares-off against Jaroslav Pospisil in the second round of the event.
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