Thomaz Bellucci cruises into the second round of the Estoril Open
Sixth seeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci trashed Danish qualifier Frederik Nielsen with a breadstick on Tuesday. He registered a 7-5, 6-1 win over the Dane to advance into the second round of the 2011 Estoril Open, a clay court tournament,
in Oeiras, Portugal.
Ranked 31st in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Bellucci faced the Dane, ranked 182 places below him, after two years and outplayed him in seventy-seven minutes at Estoril Court Central. After overpowering
Nielsen in straight sets, the Brazilian extended his lead in their head-to-head series by 2-0.
23-year-old exchanged an early break and later held his entire serves spectacularly. He then broke Nielsen’s serve again in the last game to clinch with a 7-5 win. The Brazilian had a lower first serve share of 58 percent as compared
to Dane’s 74 percent. However, he earned an impressive 74 percent win on it and smacked three aces.
The seed raised his level of game in the final set as he lost just one game in it. He saved the only breakpoint faced and converted three out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to earn a breadstick. Bellucci again
produced a lower first serve share but registered a convincing 67 percent win on it. In addition to this, he clobbered zero double faults and fewer unforced errors.
Up next for the Brazilian is the French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin who upset a Brazilian, Marcos Daniel with a breadstick to reach this spot.
The remaining two seeds also advanced to the next round. Eighth seeded Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro rallied past Portuguese qualifier Pedro Sousa in a three set thriller in one hour and fifty-two minutes.
22-year-old Argentinean broke the qualifier’s serve in the third and seventh game to win the first set with a convincing 6-2 score line.
Del Potro then double faulted in the eighth game to lose his serve and eventually lost the second set. He trailed 3-6 in this equaliser.
He double faulted again to lose his opening serve of the final set but he broke back twice to clinch the decider with a 6-3 victory.
Fifth seeded Canadian Milos Raonic eased past Russian Igor Andreev in straight sets. The rising star Raonic took eighty-five minutes to overpower Andreev and took revenge of his lost against the Russian in the quarter-finals at
Kuala Lumpur last year.
20-year-old broke the Russian’s serve in the fifth games of both sets to clinch the match with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
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