Fabio Fognini struggles against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez; moves into fourth round – French Open 2011
Italian Fabio Fognini made a crucial come back against the thirtieth seeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez from a set down to reel off three straight sets and book a fourth round spot at 2011 Roland Garros, second of the four Grand Slam event held in Paris, France. He registered a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory over the 27-year-old Spaniard on Friday.
24-year-old Italian found his spark at the right time, i.e. in this major clay court tournament, and took revenge of his loss to Garcia-Lopez on their last meeting at ATP Eastbourne last year. He now has a lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against the Spaniard.
Fognini was shaky at the start and lost the first set but as the match progressed, his form rose and the Italian bagged a breadstick in the final set.
The seeded Spaniard, who made quarter-final berth at Doha and Houston and reached semi-final at Zagreb, entered court seven confidently and superbly held his opening serve. He produced a higher first serve share of 65 percent as compared to Fognini’s 47 percent and registered an impressive 71 percent win on it. World number 33, Garcia-Lopez failed to save the only breakpoint faced but converted two out of four breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to seal the set by winning six games to four.
World number 49 Fognini re-focused his strategy in the second set and after losing an early serve, he bounced back to seal the set by winning six games to three with a crosscourt backhand winner after pushing the Spaniard in opposite direction.
The lower ranked Italian seemed to take full control of the match as he found seven breakpoint opportunities and converted three to his advantage. Although he failed to save the only breakpoint faced, Fognini hammered thirteen winners to Garcia-Lopez’s four to help win comfortably.
Fognini raised his level of game in the final set and took full advantage of the fourteen unforced errors the Spaniard committed. He faced zero breakpoint and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to earn a breadstick in twenty-nine minutes.
The Italian was in a terrible shape earlier this season. He made a semi-final berth at Santiago on the first tournament he entered this season. However, his form steeply dipped afterwards was ousted from the opening rounds from many events he entered.
Fognini had a poor win – loss record of 8 – 17 and was standing on a five match losing streak before entering at Stade Roland Garros. He re-created his magic in this second Grand Slam event of the year and triumphed over Uzbek Denis Istomin and French qualifier Stephane Robert in straight sets in the first two rounds.
The next challenge the Italian will face is the Spanish Albert Montanes who earned a double breadstick to stun the twelfth seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.
The Spaniard took two hours and eighteen minutes to seal the deal with a 6-1, 7-6(0), 6-1 success on court two.
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