Ricardo Mello defeats Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in quarter-final – BVA Open 2011 CH
Sixth seeded Brazilian, Ricardo Mello, squared-off against Spanish, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, in the quarter-final of the BVA Open Challenger tournament, contested in France, on Friday October 28th. The match lasted for
an hour and fifty five minutes and was won by the local boy after a fierce three-setter with a final score of 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
These players have a long history and had met each other on five different occasions. The head-to-head score 3-2 did hinted towards the expected victory for the Brazilian but epic form of his opponent was negating that hypothesis.
Both players had lost just two of their nine previous matches and were in prime touch at the start of the match. Crowd was eager to see their local hero race into the semi-finals and were at the arena supporting him throughout
the encounter.
Hidalgo started the match in an exciting style and won the first five games of the set by breaking his opponent’s serve twice in succession and then with a gap of just a single game won the sixth game on his serve to register the
first set win.
The crowd was extremely disappointed and were muted completely. Excellent first and serve success rate of 75% and 71% respectively shows the dominance of Spanish who completely bamboozled his opponent and didn’t allowed any opportunity
to make any sort of impact at the court.
Spectators were desperately waiting for a majestic comeback from their local favourite and that is exactly what they witnessed in the second set. Spanish did try to hold on to the initial lead of two games when he broke Mello’s
serve in the second set but couldn’t hang on to the lead and an all-round onslaught from the Brazilian forced him on the back foot.
Sixth seed broke serves in succession to take the score to 4-2 and then held on to his serves in the next two alternative games to complete his comeback. Crowd was ecstatic at this performance were roaring in favour of the home
hero.
Third set was easy going for the match favourite who clinched the first three games by breaking his opponent’s serve in the second and took the lead of 3-0 upfront. After holding on to the serves in the next two games both players
exchanged breaks in the next two to push the score to 5-2.
Hidalgo couldn’t break again and lost the battle with a difference of ten points in the last set and sixth seeded marched into the semi-finals of the tournament.
Ricardo Mello is the second most favourite to win the tournament and is expected to easily go past his country mate, wildcard entrant Thiago Alves, in the semi-finals.
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