Feliciano Lopez bows out to Guillaume Rufin in the second round – Open Sud de France 2012
World number 15, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, had a terrible day on court when he suffered a crushing straight sets defeat at the hands of the 209th ranked French wildcard player in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Wednesday. The fifth seed hot favourite hung in the contest for one hour and 29 minutes before succumbing in the second set. The final scores were 7-6(5), 6-3, in favour of the local contestant.
With the local crowd at the Arena Montpellier fully backing their local hero, Rufin overwhelmed the Spaniard in grand fashion. The 21-year-old French had some real tough time in the opening set but he remained focused in the game to keep moving neck-to-neck with the world number 15. After an intense battle for almost one hour, Rufin finally took the opener into a tie breaker and stunned everyone to pocket the decider. The local hero went absolutely berserk in the following set and completely blew away Lopez to register his second ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour-level victory of the 2012 season.
30-year-old Spanish veteran banged 13 aces in the match but coughed six double faults on the crucial occasions to let his opponent take the better of him. Rufin belted 16 thudding aces and reeled off 27 out of 33 first serve points en route to victory. He crafted nine break opportunities in the matchup and converted three of them to register the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
Rufin asserted his authority early in the opening set and rocketed away to 3-0 lead in just 10 minutes of play. Lopez registered his only break point in the fifth game but stumbled in the tie-breaker round to gift the first set to the French underdog at 6-7(5). With sky high confidence, Rufin cruised through the second set, breaking the Spanish serve in the first and ninth game to close out his stunning victory at 6-3.
A much tougher challenge waits Rufin in the quarter-finals, as he will have to go through the world number 12, Gilles Simon, for a spot in the semi-finals of the Open Sud de France. Number two seed Simon received a bye to the second round of the tournament and faced no real trouble in dumping the unseeded Italian competitor, Flavio Cipolla, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to book a date with Rufin in the round of eight. The two fellow compatriots will compete in the quarter-final round on Thursday.
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