Feliciano Lopez beats Janko Tipsarevic in the first round at the 2011 Monte Carlo Rolex Masters
Feliciano Lopez of Spain defeated Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic in three sets during the first round of Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, being held at the Monte Carlo Country Club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. The match lasted two hours
and twenty five minutes and concluded with a score line of 4-6, 6-3, and 7-6(4).
The tournament is the year’s third ATP level 1000 Masters Event and is contested over the course of one week and two days. A total field of sixty four players takes part in the tournament; twelve of which have already been eliminated
while the remaining forty will be competing one another for the Monte Carlo Masters trophy and sterling €2,750,000. The tournament is very famous in France and catches a huge fan following right after the prestigious French Open and Paris Masters.
Lopez is currently ranked 43rd in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings list. In 2005, he was as high as 20th in the world. He has two career titles to his name and has been playing tennis professionally since
1997.
After this win, Lopez’s head-to-head against Tipsarevic has become 4-1. The last time the two met was during the second round match of 2009 French Open, where Tipsarevic defeated Lopez in a four setter marathon.
While the Spaniard was the more favorite going into the match, the Serbian on the other hand had every chance to upset him taking their last head-to-head into account. Soon enough, the Serbian proved it right when he broke the
Spaniard four times in the first set with a 6-4 score.
The 26-year-old Serbian from Belgrade landed in 52 percent of his first serves correctly, winning 75 percent of the points off his first serves and 67 percent off his second. In addition to that he clinched 100 percent of his breakpoints
and won the first set with a 6-4 score line.
The second and the final set didn’t follow the same suit at all. The Spaniard used his tennis skills to the maximum and landed with four aces in the second set and ten in the final set. Moreover, he gained a whopping 92 percent
conversion rate on first serves in second set and 88 percent in the final set respectively. Whereas the Serbian lagged far behind with a difference of five percent as he only managed to clinch 95 points out of 200 in total and gave away the match in straight
sets.
In the second round of the tournament, Lopez will take on compatriot David Ferrer. Ferrer has won two titles, one at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel and the other at the Heineken Open this year. Though he has not won a Single ATP World
tour Masters 1000 tournament or Grand Slam but its looks like that this time the Spaniard might be causing huge upsets to his opponents in the upcoming matches.
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