BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy: Juan Ignacio Chela vs. Andreas Seppi

Top seed Juan Ignacio Chela trails 7th seed Andreas Seppi 1-2 in the series. Friday signals their second meeting on clay.

Chela started his title defense with a 6-1, 6-0 drubbing of veteran qualifier Florent Serra. The 32-year-old Argentine is bidding for his fourth clay-court semifinal this season. He loves it here in Bucharest having won both the singles and doubles titles 12 months ago. He made an emphatic start to the defence of his crown beating Florent Serra (#144) 6-1 6-0 in the first round. Chela took little over an hour to win that match and lost just 11 points on serve. It took his record for the season on clay to an impressive 23-12.

After the win Chela said "I'm very happy to win my first match here, It is a beautiful feeling to come back here as the defending champion after winning both singles and doubles in Bucharest last year."

It's been a good summer on the red dirt for Chela who won a title in Dusseldorf, reached the semi-finals in Kitzbuhel and the Quarter Finals at Roland Garros. Chela has won 12 of his last 16 tennis matches on clay courts.

Seppi had to work hard to win his last round match against Russian Igor Andreev (#81). Seppi faced 10 break points but was fortunate enough to save 9 of them. It took his clay court record for the season to just 7-7. It is the first time in 5 attempts that Seppi has managed to progress beyond the 2nd Round in Bucharest.

Chela is the far more accomplished player on this surface and he will be desperate to defend the title he won last season.