Rui Machado edges Matthias Bachinger in Round Robin clash – ATP Challenger Tour Finals 2011
Rated at number one in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Year-to-Date Challenger Tour Rankings, Rui Machado of Portugal had to toil hard before taking down the seventh seeded German, Matthias Bachinger, in the opening Round Robin matchup at the ATP Challenger Tour Finals on Wednesday night.
The enthralling three-setter was played on the indoor hard courts of the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, with the second seeded Portuguese winding up victory at 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Machado recovered from being one set down in the contest to turn the tables on his opponent with great mastery. He was off to a sloppy start earlier on but gradually built up his pace later to make his way right back in the business.
Machado topped the year-to-date rankings in the current Challenger Tour with his phenomenal performances with the racquet. He bagged four ATP Challenger Tour trophies out of his 14 played tournaments of this season, with the most recent one coming at Szczecin in September. The Portuguese’s sluggish start pushed him on his back foot initially but shifted to his typical aggressive game play to change the scenario of play altogether in the last two sets.
Bachinger fired eight thudding aces but committed five double faults as well to fritter away his advantage. He secured 50 out of 73 first serve points in the contest, with the second seed Machado trailing at 43. Both men traded five break points each in the match and evenly matched each other’s abilities. It was just the experience of the 27-year-old Portuguese veteran which carried him past his opponent in the competition.
Bachinger was off to a flyer, stinging an early break point to get hold of the momentum in the opening set. He fully capitalised upon Machado’s sluggishness in the game and went on to seal the first set at 6-3, getting 1-0 in the competition.
A more competitive second set was witnessed, with the second seed straining hard to stay alive in the contest. Machado and Bachinger exchanged two serve breaks apiece in the set to tie the scores at 6-6, enforcing a tie breaker round into play. The German crumbled under pressure, with Machado taking advantage of him to take the second set at 7-6(4), drawing the contest at 1-1.
Action continued in the final set as well, with Bachinger nailing two break points and Machado relying with three cracking ones to seal his hard-fought victory in two hours and twenty six minutes.
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