2 things that stood out in Nicolas Jarry's 2R win over Matteo Arnaldi at China Open

Nicolas Jarry of Chile beat Matteo Arnaldi of Italy 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-3 in the second round of the China Open in Beijing on Saturday, September 30. The match lasted for around three hours, as the 27-year-old Chilean earned a hard-fought win.

Jarry had to save a couple of match points in the second set before winning it and taking the match to the final set. The Chilean will play his quarter-final match on Monday.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:

#1. Jarry’s better first serve gave him the edge

Jarry had the better first serve of the two players and made full use of it in the match. He fired 12 aces against Arnaldi’s nine and also had a better first-serve ratio of 74% against the Italian’s 64%.

Jarry won 73% of the points on his first serve in the match, while Arnaldi managed a slightly inferior 68%. However, the gap was big enough in the context of the match that was decided by a small margin. Jarry also had the more powerful groundstrokes, which was a significant weapon on a reasonably fast court.

The Chilean took a 4-1 lead in the first set by breaking Arnaldi once in the process. However, the Italian took the pace off the ball to play his backhand slices repeatedly to force the Chilean to commit some unforced errors off his forehand. He thus broke back to take the set into a tie-break and then managed to win it too.

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#2. Jarry played a lot of approaches before finishing points with volleys

Jarry capitalized on his powerful groundstrokes by playing approaches throughout the match, especially with his inside-out forehand. The Chilean then moved forward to hit volleys and winners from the forecourt with his forehand.

However, to his credit, Arnaldi defended really well on his backhand side and managed to have a couple of match points while being 6-5 ahead in the second set. However, Jarry’s mighty serve bailed him out and he then went on to win the subsequent tie-break.

The Chilean played some stupendous tennis in the third set, hitting a few wonderful crosscourt forehands and down-the-line backhand winners. He thus managed to break Arnaldi once and then held his serve to build up a lead. He maintained that lead for the remainder of the match, finishing the match with an overhead smash.