Feliciano Lopez edges past Pablo Andujar into the third round – US Open 2012
Ranked 31st in the world, Feliciano Lopez of Spain scored a hard fought win over his countryman, Pablo Andujar, in the second round of the US Open at the Flushing Meadows in New York on Thursday.
The Spanish star won opening two sets but lost the advantage by dropping the following two and then regained his composure to win the decider, closing the match 6-4, 6-1, 6-7(5), 3-6, 7-5 to advance to the last 32 at this final
Grand Slam of the season.
Lopez and Andujar started by holding their serve in the first two games to take the score to 1-1. The 30-year-old stung a break in the third game and consolidated on it to build a 3-1 lead. Andujar fought back to win two in a row
after that, levelling the score at 3-3. Though, Lopez grabbed another breakthrough in the seventh and made sure that Andujar did not pull it back this time, sealing it 6-4.
Seeded 30th in the draw, Lopez played near error free in the second set, as he allowed his compatriot to win only one game till the end, breaking three times to capture it 6-1.
Lopez and Andujar impressed with their serve in the third set, as none of the two dropped it till the end, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. Andujar earned a late mini-break and capitalised on it to triumph 7-6(5).
Both players broke each other once in the opening six games of the fourth set to square off the score at 3-3. It was an all Andujar show later on, as he bagged three straight games to clinch it 6-3.
After Andujar levelled the score at two sets all, it all came to the decider. The two Spaniards won their opening serves to equalise the score at 1-1. Andujar drew the first blood by breaking Lopez in the third game but his higher
ranked countryman pulled it back in the eighth one to even it out at 4-4. Serving to stay in the contest at 5-6, Andujar could not hold and threw it away 5-7.
Lopez will take on the third seed, Andy Murray of Great Britain, in the third round. The world number four outclassed Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in the second round.
This will be the seventh meeting between these two. Murray has won all the six previous matches against Lopez.
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