Rui Machado takes down Dudi Sela in the Round Robin Clash – ATP Challenger Tour Finals 2011
Second seed in the tournament, Portugal’s Rui Machado carried on his sublime form of the season at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Challenger Tour Finals, beating the fourth seeded Israeli, Dudi Sela, in a Round Robin
match on Thursday night.
Being the most successful player on the Challenger Tour this year, Machado displayed his dominant game play once again to drive the aggressive Israeli competitor out of the season ending finale. Machado took merely 58 minutes of
play to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, holding the top spot in the Yellow Group of the draw.
The Portuguese had some tough time in his first matchup against Germany’s Matthias Bachinger on Wednesday but appeared to be in absolute control in the competition against Sela. He gave him no real opportunities to come on top
and cruised through the two sets to register a comprehensive victory.
“Yesterday I had a tough match; I struggled in adapting to the court, but I fought a lot to be able to win,” Machado referred to his three-setter against Bachinger, “Today I had the same mentality and it went a little bit easier
than I thought it would be and I played a lot better.”
Machado’s 71 per cent precise serve earned him 21 out of 30 first serve points in the matchup, with his opponent lagging behind at 15. The second seed crafted a total of 10 break opportunities and converted half of them to come
out as the winner, whereas Sela registered just one break point in the entire contest to finish on the losing side.
The Portuguese nailed three break points right up in the opening set, racing away to a 5-2 lead and then comprehensively served out of the set number one at 6-2. He continued with his aggressive game play in the second se as well,
striking two more breaks of serve to seal victory at 6-2.
Machado topped the ATP Year-to-Date Challenger Tour Rankings for the current year, winning four out of 14 Challenger Tour events he played, with the most recent one coming at Szczecin in September. He came to Sao Paulo as the hot
favourite for winning the circuit ending event and his two successive victories in the opening encounters depict he is well for it. Machado will take on the fifth seeded German, Cedrik Marcel Stebe, in his last of the Round Robin match on Friday to book a
berth in the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour Finals.
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