Rui Machado slays Martin Fischer to advance into the semi-final – Trani Cup 2011 CH
Top seeded Portuguese Rui Machado slaughtered Austrian Martin Fischer with a bagel at the Trani Cup 2011, an ATP Challenger Tour event held on the clay courts in Trani, Italy. He barely broke sweat to register
a 6-0, 6-3 victory over the 25-year-old Austrian to advance into the semi-finals on Friday.
World number 84 Machado displayed exceptional attributes to crush the Austrian, ranked 114 places below him, in straight sets on their first meeting. After earning this success in one hour and eleven minutes, the Portuguese secured
a final four spot in this event.
The seed burst his skills in the opening set as he unleashed barrage of powerful groundstrokes to reel off all six games in a row. He possessed a much higher first serve share of 74 percent as compared to Austrian’s 50 percent
and registered a plausible 65 percent win on it. In addition to this, Machado warded off the only breakpoint faced and converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to earn the bagel.
The 27-year-old Portuguese carried his winning ways into the final set and earned the critical break in the second game to take 2-0 lead. However, he lost his serve in the proceeding game and eventually levelled the scores at 2-2.
Later, Machado held remaining serves convincingly and broke Fischer’s serve again in the eighth game to bag the set with a 6-3 score line. He again produced a 74 percent of first serve share and earned a similar 65 percent win on it. The Portuguese failed
to save the only breakpoint conceded but converted two out of seven breakpoint chances to his advantage.
Up next for the highest ranked player of the tournament is Argentinean Leonardo Mayer who trashed Italian wild card enterer Matteo Trevisan in straight sets to reach this spot.
Steve Darcis is the only other seed who will be joining Machado in the semis. The third seeded Belgian was never threatened by breakpoints and capitalised on half of the six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to earn a breadstick
in the opening set against Romanian Adrian Ungur.
The 27-year-old Belgian kept winning formula in the final set and faced zero breakpoint. He then converted one out of four breakpoint chances to his advantage in the fourth game to seal the set with a 6-3 win.
Up next for the Belgian is an Italian wild card entrant, Andrea Arnaboldi who dumped Darcis’ compatriot David Goffin with a breadstick in almost one and half hour later that day.
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