Santiago Giraldo upsets thirteenth seed Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets at Barcelona
Columbia’s top tennis pro Santiago Giraldo defeated seeded pro Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in straight sets at this year’s Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, winning the match to secure a position in the second round of the tournament.
The Columbian pro took just a little over one hour and forty-five minutes to win the match with a score-line of 7-5, 6-3.
Giraldo began the match with aplomb, covering the court like a pro to challenge his opponent. Both players quickly made the first set interesting, as they stayed away from double faults and scored one ace apiece in the process.
Bellucci played the more reckless game and was broken three times by Giraldo, while the Columbian pro successfully defended himself against three break points out of five. This led to a tie-breaker in the set, which ended when Santiago Giraldo managed to take
two points more than his opponent to win the set 7-5.
The second set was much easier for Santiago Giraldo, especially since Thomaz Bellucci seemed quite discouraged by his loss in the first set tie-breaker. Both players committed one double fault apiece, but Giraldo gained a bit of
a lead with two aces and two successfully converted break points. Bellucci had the opportunity to break Giraldo five times during the match, but fumbled and could only manage to convert one break point successfully. Giraldo concluded the set by winning an
impressive 54 per cent of the total points in the set, which meant that he took six points more than Bellucci could muster. He ended the set in the last quarter of the second hour, at 6-3. The final score-line for this first round match was 7-5, 6-3 with Santiago
Giraldo closing the match easily.
Giraldo is currently ranked World Number 54, over twenty spots lower than World Number 32 Thomaz Bellucci. Despite his lower ranking, the player has won three matches over Bellucci so far and their head to head record is 3-0 now.
Santiago Giraldo will be taking on Spanish wild card Albert Ramos in the second round of the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
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