Rui Machado battles past Jaroslav Pospisil into second round – Sao Leopoldo Challenger 2011
Top seed, Rui Machado of Portugal squared-off against the Czech, Jaroslav Pospisil, in the first round of the Sao Leopoldo Challenger tournament, contested in Brazil, on Tuesday November 1st. Top seed had his revenge for the earlier loss in the year with a straight sets 6-3, 7-6(2) win in just over two hour and twenty-three minutes.
World No. 207, Pospisil was in dismal run of form and had registered just three wins in his last nine encounters whilst his opponent had lost three. It was a bit of a mismatch on paper and everyone expected the top seed to cruise past him but it was not an easy ride for the Portuguese; he worked hard to earn his points and place a berth in the second round of the event.
The match started off in a traditional manner as both players held on to their serves and pushed the score to 2-2. Surprisingly it was 30-year-old, Pospisil, who broke first but couldn’t hang on to his serve in the next game; the score was 3-3 at that stage.
27-year-old, Machado, started the next game with an ace and carried the momentum into next game by clinching some crucial winners and broke his opponent’s serve once again to take lead of 5-3; he held on to his serve in the next game to seal the first set win in comprehensive manner.
Pospisil had his opportunities in the set to make a mark and apart from one successful break, he had three more opportunities but he couldn’t capitalize on any of them and in the end paid the price for his inefficiencies.
Total points played in the first set were 58 and Portuguese bagged 55% of them to win the first set and made an impressive start to another challenger tournament title hunt.
The Czech organised himself during the break and came back in the match in convincing manner having won the first three games on trot by breaking once. Machado was flabbergasted by this performance but was experienced enough to come up with a better plan.
Machado broke his opponent’s serve in the next game and then again the game after to level the score proceeding at 3-3. Two more breaks were traded between the players in the ninth and tenth game of the set.
A massive blunder was made by the Portuguese in the twelfth game of the set in the form of double-fault but he managed to save the breakpoint and enforce a tie-breaker. This time it was Pospisil who double-faulted and couldn’t recover from there; he lost the set with a difference of seven points.
The Portuguese heads on to meet country mate Gastao Elias in the next round.
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