Roger Federer Destroys Juan Ignacio Chela at the BNP Paribas Open
Switzerland’s Roger Federer, 2nd seed at the BNP Paribas Open 2011, defeated Argentine 29th seed Juan Ignacio Chela in two whirlwind sets on Tuesday. The match, which lasted a mere 58 minutes, was part of
the third round proceedings at the first ATP 1000 Masters event of the year. It finished with a final scoreline of 6-0, 6-2, and became FedEx’s quickest victory of the year.
Federer is the current World no.2 and is commonly believed to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He has won a record amount of Grand Slams, 16, and more tour-level tournaments than any other active player. As a
result, he is the general favorite in whatever match he plays. This year hasn’t been Federer’s best; he has only won one tournament to date and gone out on the final of another. His two losses this year were both to Novak Djokovic, and were relatively tame
affairs.
Chela is 31 years of age and the current world number 32. He turned pro at the same time as Federer, and consequently, has faced the king several times before. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he has never won a match against him and has
lost 5. Chela has had a good year so far. Although he has lost 6 matches to date, he has won 10. His last match against Federer came a while ago though, at the Toronto Masters, where, despite losing in straight sets, he did manage to extend his opponent to
a tie break in the first set.
No such luck here though. Federer started off at a blistering pace, delivering 71 per cent of his first serves correctly. While Chela followed close behind at 67 per cent, FedEx’s shot making was supreme. He converted 71 per cent
of his first serves into points and won 3 out of the 6 points that went on his second serve. His opponent could only manage to win 38 per cent of his total service points, due mainly to his second serve, on which he could only manage 1 point out of 8. This
laxness on serve left Chela facing break points on 5 different occasions. 2 of these occasions he managed to salvage, but Federer succeeded in breaking in all of Chela’s service games. The set was thus over in a jiffy and Federer had it 6-0.
The second set started off in much the same way. Federer’s serving has been under-par all tournament though, and so was the case here. He only managed to land in 48 per cent of his first serves. His opponent was no better, only
coming up with 44 per cent. The Swiss maestro was dominant on serve though, and won 76 per cent of his total service points. Chela was not so fortunate, and by winning only 48 per cent of the points he served on, he gave Federer 4 break points. This time the
king broke twice, and thus sealed the match 6-0, 6-2.
In the next round, Federer faces break-out teenager Ryan Harrison. Harrison defeated another young gun, Milos Raonic, in his last match. The youngster has an exciting game and should have nothing to lose against Federer, which
always leads to an exciting match.
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