Rui Machado beats Pedro Sousa and advances to round two – Estoril Open 2012
Rui Machado of Portugal delighted the home crowd by winning the close three-setter 6(3)-7, 6-1, 6-2 against the 23-year-old compatriot, Pedro Sousa, to march into the second round of the Estoril Open on Tuesday.
The battle lasted just a fraction over a couple of hours and witnessed five aces with eight breakpoints and 189 rallies. Both players started off well with a serve hold but the inferior ranked Portuguese lost the breakpoint in
the third game. However, he recovered brilliantly to tie the scores at 3-3 and balance the set.
Unfortunately, crowd was deprived of any breakpoints in the following four games but a swap of breakthroughs brought them to life with a tie-breaker round into play to decide the winner. Stunningly, it was the underdog who ousted
his compatriot in the tie-breaker and won the opening set. No one thought that there would be an upset but the odds shot up for Sousa.
However, the start to the second set was pretty dismal for the 244th ranked Portuguese. He lost a couple of serve games at the start and went down to a trail of 0-5. It looked like he was going to face an embarrassing
bagel but an odd serve hold helped him to save an awkward moment and some pride for himself. However, it didn’t stop his competitor from taking the second set and marching on in style.
A similar performance from Machado helped him to win a couple of breakpoints in the final set as well. He registered a resounding lead of 4-0 at the start and exerted immense pressure on his rival. He had reached the stage where
he was hitting the ball at his will and forcing his opponent to stretch far away and make powerless returns.
Serve holds for both players until the end of the match were witnessed but more importantly, crowd watched an epic battle between two local representatives. The deserving player progressed into the next round and booked a date
with the top seed Argentine, Juan Martin Del Potro. He will have to fight very hard to keep his chances alive for winning the title on his home soil.
Del Potro is in sublime run of form and registering an upset against him will be very difficult to say the least. He will come out with an all-round onslaught but if Machado is able to handle the initial pressure and don’t lose
a breakpoint, he is in with a chance.
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