The first match of the day in Rio Open was played by the local playe,r Thiago Monteiro ,and the Portuguese Gastão Elias. The Brazilian, though, overcame the odds and eventually defeated Elias 2-1 on Centre Court. It was a very tough match for both but the precision of the first serve made Thiago Monteiro successful.
First set conquered by an unexceptionable Elias
Thiago Monteiro served to start the match and Gastão Elias brook his serve on the first game. The Portuguese started to serve really well and closed his first game, while serving, at love. Being 2-0 down, Monteiro made some mistakes because he was trying to win the point after just a few strokes. Until the 3-0 15-0, Elias put 100% of his firsts serves in, with his first second serve appearing on the next point.
The set was being one sided and the bagel was looming as the ATP 86th best player was on a rush leading 4-0. Monteiro won his first game of the match to reduce the distance to 4-1 and three games later Gastão sealed the set by the score of 6-2. The first set lasted 27 minutes.
Second set comeback from the local player
The player ranked 85th on ATP started the second set with a love hold and by putting Elias' serve in danger, the Portuguese was able to close it. The attitude was totally different from both players at this time of the match. Thiago Monteiro was very aggressive, very strong on his serve and playing to win every point, unlike Gastão Elias, who failed a lot more on his service games and increased his number of unforced errors.
A lot of good rallies were seen what took the match to a second set tiebreak. Monteiro was barely failing and conquered the second set tiebreak although he had been three points away from losing the match when he was 4-3 down. The second set ended 7-6(4) after 1 hour and 1 minute.
Thiago Monteiro confirms his momentum and closes the match
The third set was very disputed like the second one. Elias improved his level but Monteiro was still not failing a lot. The Portuguese player had three points to take a 2-0 lead but Monteiro was strong and held his serve to level the match 1-1.
Right after that, the first service break of the third set occurred, with the local player breaking Gastão's serve. The match was never tied again and Thiago Monteiro took the match 2-6 7-6(4) 6-4 when his opponent committed an unforced error to end proceedings; the match lasted for 2 hours and 24 minutes.
Stats
The winner of the match double faulted 4 times and fired 1 ace against the 2 fired by the loser. Thiago Monteiro won 78% of the points played on his first serve and Gastão Elias won 83%. When it comes to break points, the Portuguese has faced only one, but it was enough for Monteiro to win. 93 points, that's the number of points won by Thiago in the whole match. Elias won a total of 91 points.
What's next?
Thiago Monteiro will face either Thomaz Bellucci in the second round. Gastão Elias will continue to play doubles with Facundo Bagnis.