Feliciano Lopez outplays Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the second round – Suisse Open Gstaad 2011
World number 24 Feliciano Lopez of Spain ousted world number 67, compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 16 at the Credit Agricole Suisse Open in Gstaad on Thursday. The match lasted for an hour
and twelve minutes.
Lopez kept his opponent under pressure from the start of the match as he broke him in the fourth game and held his serve in the next game to go ahead 4-1. The 29-year-old broke again in the sixth game to take a 5-1 lead but he
failed to serve out the set, losing his serve in the seventh game to take the score to 5-2. Lopez finally succeeded in serving out the set in at 5-3.
The Spaniard delivered 71 percent of the first serves and a couple of aces, committing the same number of double faults in the first set. Lopez claimed sixteen of the 22 first service points. The left-handed could not save the
only break point he faced but converted two of the six break points he received on Gimeno-Traver’s serve in the opening set.
Lopez broke his compatriot in the opening game of the second set and consolidated on it to grab a 2-0 lead. The Spaniard sustained his lead throughout the set, capturing it 6-4.
The Madrid resident kept his first serve percentage at 61 percent and fired five aces in the second set. Lopez sealed sixteen of the nineteen points on the first serve and ten of the 29 points on the first return in the second
set. The Spaniard capitalised on one of the five break point opportunities he created on his opponent’s serve and saved the one break point he faced in the second set.
Featuring here for the sixth year, Lopez has now won nine of the fourteen matches he has played in Gstaad. The Spaniard was beaten by fellow countryman Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in three sets 4-6, 7-6(4), 3-6 in the opening round
in his last appearance here in 2009. He lost to French Paul-Henri Mathieu in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-7(4) in the round of 16 in 2007. The Spaniard gave his best performance when he reached the title match in 2006, losing to Richard Gasquet in four sets 6-7(4),
7-6(3), 3-6, 3-6. Lopez went down in the round of 16 in his first two appearances here in 2005 and 2003, getting defeated by Italian Potito Starace and Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina respectively.
The Spaniard will meet either Nicolas Almagro or Jarkko Nieminen in the quarterfinals.
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