Rui Machado dumps Jan Hajek to cruise into the quarterfinal – Poznan Porsche Open 2011 CH
Third seeded Portuguese Rui Machado eased past Czech Jan Hajek with a breadstick at the Poznan Porsche Open 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event held in Poland. He barely sweated to register a 6-2, 6-1 victory over the unseeded Czech
to advance into the last eight on Wednesday.
27-year-old Portuguese geared up well to slay the Czech with a breadstick in one hour and twenty-two minutes on their first meeting. He secured a quarter-final spot in this event and is eyeing for the €85,000 prize money.
Ranked 96th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Machado confidently entered the clay court and held his opening serve through his backhand slices. He then founded the coveted break in the second game
and took the lead before gifting away his serve in the proceeding game. However, the Portuguese retaliated by breaking Hajek’s serve again in the fourth game and held his serve in the next game to take a 4-1 lead. After the Czech held his serve for the first
time in the sixth game, Machado wiped out last two games to seal the opener by winning six games to two.
He produced a slightly higher first serve share but registered a convincing 62 percent win on it. Furthermore, the Portuguese saved half breakpoints faced and converted sixty percent of breakpoint chances to his advantage.
The Faro native went into savage mode in the second set. He unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off first three games in a row before Hajek could hold on. The Portuguese then re-ignited the spark and bagged in last three
games as well to clinch with a breadstick.
Machado registered amazing stats in the final set. He earned a higher first serve share, a plausible win on it, had a perfect breakpoints saving record and cashed in all breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Up next for the seeded Portuguese is French Vincent Millot who stunned seventh seeded German Denis Gremelmayr in straight sets to set-up this meeting.
The Frenchman saved both breakpoints faced and capitalised on half of the breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the opening set with a 6-3 score line.
He then surprised everyone after sealing the final set with a 6-4 victory as he not only upset a seeded player but also made a final eight appearance in this event. Millot failed to save the only breakpoint conceded but converted
two out of three breakpoint chances to his advantage.
Millot took only fifty-eight minutes to earn this success and confidently advanced in the tournament.
Tags: