Defending Champ Chela reaches semi in Bucharest

Written by: Resendiz on 24th September 2011

Defending Champ Chela reaches semi in Bucharest

Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina returns a ball to his opponent Adreas Seppi of Italy during their quarter final match of the 'BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011' tennis tournament, in Bucharest, Romania, 23 September 2011. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT |

World No. 23 Juan Ignacio Chela has moved into the semi-finals at the BDR Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest after a two hour battle with Italian Andreas Seppi.

The Argentinian is the defending Champion in Bucharest. He overcame Seppi 7-5 6-3 to set up a clash with Spain’s Pablo Andujar in the semis. The number four seed Pablo Andujar prevailed Italian qualifier Alessandro Giannessi 6-3 6-4.

The number two seed Florian Mayer of Germany crushed his opponent from Spain Albert Ramos 6-1 6-2 in one hour and 12 minutes. This is the German’s fourth semi-final this season. Mayer will face Italian Filippo Volandri in the semi-finals on Saturday. Volandri only needed one hour to win over Joao Souza of Brazil 6-2 6-0. The Italian Bucharest semi-finalist said, “This was my best day so far this week. I played good already last week. This is my third semi-final here, I need points and this is one of the last weeks on clay. Mayer is a tough player who doesn’t give you any rhythm.”

Hometown favourite Horia Tecau and partner Robert Lindstedt of Sweden lost to Jordan Kerr of Australia and Travis Parrott of the United States in the quarterfinals 3-6 6-2 10-5. Kerr and Parrott went on to lose in the semi-finals to Italian duo Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace 7-6 (3) 3-6 10-4.

The Italian team will play the number four seeds Julian Knowle of Austria and David Marrero of Spain in the final tomorrow. Knowle and Marrero fought hard to make the final with a win over the number two seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek 7-6 (2) 4-6 10-8.

SCHEDULE – SATURDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER, 2011

CENTRAL start 2:00 pm

F Volandri (ITA) vs [2] F Mayer (GER)

[1] J Chela (ARG) vs [4] P Andujar (ESP)

Not Before 5:30 PM

[3] D Bracciali (ITA) / P Starace (ITA) vs [4] J Knowle (AUT) / D Marrero (ESP)