Rui Machado, Inigo Cervantes Huegun move into the second round – Madrid Challenger 2011
Number one seed Rui Machado of Portugal defeated German tennis player Jan Lennard Struff 6-1, 1-6, and 6-2 on Tuesday to advance in to the second round of 2011 Madrid Challengers here in Madrid, Spain.
Machado looked in commanding form right from the start of the match. Dropping only a game, he bagged the opening set in a blink of an eye. Although he lost his concentration in the second set, he bounced back brilliantly in the
third and final set to ensure his place in the next round of the Association of Tennis Professionals tournament.
Ranked 62nd in the world, Machado has been in terrific form since the start of year 2011. Following his consistent performances on the tour, he improved his ATP ranking significantly. Still in pursuit of first career
title, Machado has a great chance to make it all the way to the final if he can maintain his current level of play.
Making plenty of errors in serve department of the game, Machado managed to hit only 57 per cent of his first serves. Making six double faults in the match, he was clearly not at his nest. It will not be wrong to say that his win
was largely assisted by the unforced errors from his opponent. Converting only five out of thirteen break chances in the match, he will have to rethink his game strategy to achieve a better conversion rate. However, his defence was as good as it can be as
he saved six out of nine break points in the match.
Struff, on the other hand, will be disappointed with his ordinary effort. The German had his chances but he could not inflict enough blows on the challenger. Hitting only 40 per cent of his first serve, he really did not help himself.
He certainly is a quality player and he will come back stronger on his next appearance on the tour.
In another match, Spanish tennis pro Inigo Cervantes Huegun demolished Italian Matteo Viola 6-0, 6-2 to reach second round.
Huegun dominated his opponent in almost all aspects of the game. Dropping only a couple of games, he didn’t take too long to close out the match that lasted for only 56 minutes. Huegun was quite disappointing in serve department
of the game as he managed to hit only 38 per cent of his first serves. He will be hoping to do better in his next match-up at the tournament
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