Neil Pauffley upsets third seed in Cardiff
24th October 2012
Neil Pauffley provided the first upset at the AEGON GB Pro-Series Cardiff when he beat third seed and British number 2 Josh Goodall in the first round at the Virgin Active Club Cardiff.
The 22 year-old from Slough returned to competition earlier this year after being out of action injured for nearly 18 months, and is currently at a career high ranking of 560.
After losing the first set on a tiebreak, Pauffley raced through the second set 6-1, to set up a final set decider, which after nearly 2 ½ hours, came through 6-4 finishing with two aces to clinch victory on his second match point.
The keenly anticipated match between Jamie Baker & Richard Bloomfield unfortunately didn’t materialise after the Norwich player was ill overnight. As a result Baker found himself playing veteran Sander Groen (NED), who has been ranked as high as 177 singles and 44 doubles in the 1990’s, however it was the British No.3 who prevailed winning 6-1, 6-2.
There were also wins for Tom Farquharson, who beat Lithuanian Davis Cup player and eighth seed Laurynas Grigelis 6-4 6-3, Myles Orton, Tom Burn, David Rice, and sixth seed Dan Evans.
Top seed Arnau Brugues-Davi won a marathon first set tie-break 15-13 on his way to victory over Alexandre Sidorenko 7-6(13), 6-3. The Spaniard created an ITF Pro-Circuit record this year, by winning 44 consecutive matches and 8 titles, surpassing the previous record of 39 which had stood for 5 years.
Play starts Wednesday at 10.30am with free entry for spectators.