Roberto Bautista-Agut surprises Horacio Zeballos in the round of 16 – Tunis Open 2012 CH
World number 129, Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain, managed to secure his place in the last eight, as he upset fifth seed, Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos, in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round at the Tunis Open on Thursday.
In the first set, Bautista-Agut and Zeballos did not lose their serve in the first eight games to level the score at 4-4. The Argentinean succeeded in making a breakthrough in the ninth and served it out at 5-4.
Zeballos pounded three aces and 70 percent of the first serves in the opener. The Argentinean had a brilliant conversion rate on both first and second deliveries, winning 14 of the 16 and six of the seven points on them respectively.
Just like the first set, both players made a steady start in the second, holding their serves in the first nine games to take the score to 5-4 in Bautista-Agut’s favour. Serving to stay in the set, Zeballos managed to claim just
two points and lost it 4-6.
Bautista-Agut was lucky to win the second set despite serving unimpressively, as he failed to hit any ace and put in just 55 percent of the first deliveries, converting just 11 of the 16 of them into points. In comparison, Zeballos
bombarded four aces and captured 12 of the 13 points on the first serves. Though, the Argentinean managed to win just six of the 11 points on the second deliveries compared to 10 of the 13 by Bautista-Agut.
With the winning momentum on his side, the Spaniard performed tremendously well in the decider. He broke Zeballos in the fourth and sixth game, capitalising on the double break to win 6-4
Bautista-Agut completely dominated on his serve, banging in a couple of aces and keeping his first serve percentage at 82. The Spaniard snatched 15 of the 18 first and three of the four second delivery points. On the other hand,
Zeballos’ could not match his first set’s performance, as he was unable to hit any ace and claimed just five of the nine points on the first serves. Bautista-Agut did not give any break chance to the Argentinean and capitalised on two of the three of his own
in the final set.
The Spaniard took two hours and nine minutes to claim victory in a marathon match.
Bautista-Agut is pitted against top seed, Marcel Granollers, in the quarter-final. Granollers thrashed Italian player, Matteo Viola, in the second round.
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