Rui Machado cruises past Gastao Elias into the last eight – Sao Leopoldo Challenger 2011
Two Portuguese tennis stars, Rui Machado and Gastao Elias, locked horns in the second round of the Sao Leopoldo Challenger tournament, contested in outdoor clay courts Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. On Thursday November 3rd,
top seed, Machado, hammered his country mate in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 in just over an hour and forty-one minutes.
Inferior ranked, Elias, was going through a bit of rough time at the courts losing four of his last nine encounters. His opponent had maintained a fine winning percentage in his last nine encounters. It was a very tough draw for
the 20-year-old youngster on the paper and it turned out to be pretty difficult on the court as well.
Considering the fact that it was non Brazilian contest, still a lot of people turned out in the arena to watch the top seed of the tournament hammer his opponent in his traditional fashion. Conditions were very difficult for the
youngster because of his lack of experience and inability to cope with pressure situations.
It was the second encounter between the two players and the top seed clinched an easy win last month as well. There was an opportunity for the youngster to pull up a major upset and hit the headlines next morning but his rival
was in no mood to provide him any leather opportunity throughout the game.
Machado hit the fourth gear from the start and started the proceedings with a fierce ace. He took the first game and broke in the second to take 2-0 lead. Elias hit back hard earned an opportunity to break in the third game but
lost it uncharacteristically, hitting an easy return straight into the net.
Finally the youngster held on to his serve in the fourth game and reduced the trail to 3-1 but couldn’t break to make an impact and pull back the lead of his opponent; score moved to 4-2 in the meantime.
The 27-year-old top seed held his serve in the second last game and broke his rival’s serve in the last to finish the first set in a flash. Trailing one set down and everything running against him, it was extremely difficult for
the youngster to stand up and fight in the second set to pull something back.
20-year-old, Elias, gave a good fight in the second set but felt short at the ideas at the critical stage of the game and lost his opportunity to place a berth into the quarter-finals. Both players exchanged breaks upfront and
then held their serves till the score went to 4-4. Machado had struck two aces while his opponent had committed a single double-fault in the meantime
The critical break came in the last game of the set when youngster couldn’t handle pressure and double-faulted once again to give advantage to his rival which was grasped with both hands by the top seed.
Rui Machado inches one step closer to the challenger title and moves into the quarters where he meets the eighth seed Wayne Odesnik.
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