Ricardo Mello cruises past Thiago Alves into title match – BVA Open 2011 CH
It was an all-round Brazilian semi-final between the sixth seed, Ricardo Mello, and wildcard entrant, Thiago Alves, at the BVA Open Challenger tournament, contested in Brazil, on Saturday October 29th. It was a one-sided
encounter that lasted for almost an hour and twenty-minutes and finished with a final score of 6-3, 6-2 in favour of the sixth seed, Mello.
They have faced each other for ten times before this encounter and sixth seeded dominated the head-to-head tally with 9-1 and was looking to transform that into double figures with this triumph. The only victory for Alves came
when his opponent retired due to injury so technically there was no comprehensive win for the wildcard entrant against the sixth seed.
Both players were in tremendous run of form having list just one encounter in their last nine matches and but the history and difference in the ranking between the two players depicted that Mello will cruise past his opponent and
register an easy win.
Expectations proved to be true and 30-year-old, Mello, thumped his competitor and easily marched into the grand finale. Wildcard entrant tried his level best but he was not up to the mark and committed some unforced errors that
led to his downfall.
The match lacked the power play and crowd was a bit disappointed because both players didn’t put up an exciting thriller and failed to create any impression. Just a single ace throughout the match; it was not the match that could
be rated high for providing entertainment to the crowd.
Mello was impressive with his first serve and registered higher success rate from his opponent; Alves won 88% points on his first serve whilst his opponent clinched 62%. Wild card entrant lacked quality in the second serve department
as well and could only convert 33% serves to his favour whilst his opponent was terrific throughout and registered an impressive 64% second serve success rate.
Initially both players met blow to blow for each other but the crucial break in the eighth game of the first set and sixth game of the second set helped Mello to take lead that proved a bit too much for his opponent to cover.
29-year-old, wildcard entrant, lacked confidence and history repeated itself. Alves lost another chance to nail his long last opponent; crowd was extremely disappointed to see such a one-sided battle and the flare of the semi-final
was missing throughout the match. It was a tamed effort by the wild card entrant who could never open up and play his natural game.
Sixth seeded, Mello bagged 43 points in total and won the game with a massive difference of 13 points. He squares-off against Eduardo Schwank of Argentina in the final of the event.
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