[Filo V.]

Great win for Fred. Gil broke for *3-1 in the first set on Bellucci's third double fault in the first two service games. Bellucci had break point to rebreak, which wasn't taken, and ended up being a theme throughout the match. Bellucci had BP to start the second set on top, which was not taken and he got broken the immediate next game after saving 3 BPs to go down 1-*2. Gil was down 0-30 the next game and held, broke again for *4-1.

Bellucci needed 6 break points to get one of the breaks back in the second set and held to make things interesting at 3-*4. Gil saved three more break points to hold for 5-3. He had a BP to win the match on return but held serve to 15 to win the match.

Very important win for Fred, happy he took it and kept it together when things got tight. Bellucci tried coming back but it just wasn't enough. Gil saved 9/10 break points in the match.

 

[Gil&becker]

Great win for Gil. Now, Kohlschreiber for a decent chance to get to R3. This one was decided on saving BP (until mid-2nd set, then it was over)! Go Gil!

 

[yesh222]

Very good win for Fred. He had a good run last year for a few months but hasn't picked it up since.

 

[Sauletekis]

I'm so happy, I knew it was not easy, but that he had a decent change. And i'll say the same with Phillip. Hard but winnable...

 

[Gillouthe best]

Gil needs to get the most points he can before MC, because if he doesn't win many matches before that his ranking is gonna be really low.

 

[Hypnotize]

Bellucci's game has really nose-dived recently. He was being talked about as a darkhorse for the French Open last year, now he's losing to players like Gil. :facepalm:

 

[Naudio Spanlatine]

Bellucci

Gil

 

[Sauletekis]

Gil needs to get the most points he can before MC, because if he doesn't win many matches before that his ranking is gonna be really low.

You're right but it's not going to be THAT big fall. He will still be in the doors of top 100. And after that he almost got no points to defend for some months.

 

[coonster14]

Top stuff Frederico! Keep running through the draw :yeah:

 

[VolandriFan]

Quite like Fred, but this is a terrible, terrible loss for Bellucci.

 

[Filo V.]

It really isn't. Bellucci ain't that good to routine Gil on hardcourt.

 

[BroTree123]

Bad loss considering he almost took out Fed last week. He has one of the worst attitudes on court. For that reason, Bellucci deserved to lose like this.

 

[Filo V.]

Thomaz said he "could not feel the ball" and that's why he lost.

 

[VolandriFan]

It really isn't. Bellucci ain't that good to routine Gil on hardcourt.

A guy who was practically top 20 less than two years ago, has a handful of hard court quarters and semis to his name, 4th round at IW and Miami should be beating a guy like Gil relatively comfortably on this surface. I can understand though if the courts which are apparently also playing flat negated Bellucci's heavy forehand and serve.

This was 27-year-old (in a few days anyway) Gil's second legitimate career top 50 win on hard courts. It's nice to see him continue his overall improvement, but Bellucci is reaching a point where he should be finding some consistency in his game before he's doomed to become a middle-of-the-road, pseudo-journeyman. He's at that 24 year old mark and I'll give him another year before writing him off as a top 20-30 player.

 

[BroTree123]

^^
This.

But I guess no one cares. He's been predictably useless for a while now.

 

[Mongoose]

amazing how bad Bellucci was in this match

had most of the crowd support but Brazilians had little to cheer about except for the break back in the second and a near second break back. Gil had one section of Portuguese rowdiness behind the baseline.

 

[Andre♥]

Gil had actually given a good fight to Isner in Indian Wells, so I wasn't that surprised with this result. Still, this is obviously a good win for him.