Feliciano Lopez takes down Leonardo Mayer on the first day – Australian Open 2012
World number 19, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, registered a straight sets victory over the unseeded Argentine, Leonardo Mayer, in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday. The 18th seed Spaniard battled hard for
three hours and 18 minutes before settling the scores at 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-6(2), to move into the second round of the Grand Slam tournament.
Sheer resilience posed by Mayer stretched Lopez to his limits before crumbling in the third set of the match. The Argentine dragged two of the three sets being played into tie-breaker rounds but his lack of experience led him down
in the match. He cracked in 13 aces in the contest but also coughed nine double faults on the most crucial moments of the match to finish on the losing side in the end.
A sloppy start was seen from both contestants in the opening set, as no serve breaks were seen from either side. A regular game took the scores to 6-6, enforcing a tie-breaker round into play for the first time in the match. The
decider also went to the wire and Mayer kept the score board ticking on even terms. A couple of consecutive winners down the line closed out the first set in the Spaniard’s favour at 7-6(5).
Lopez registered the first break point of the day in the second game of the following set and held his serve to extend his lead by 3-0. Mayer failed to recover from early damage done by the break point conversion and Lopez took
the second set at 6-3 to inch even closer to victory.
The third set witnessed an early exchange of break points in the opening two games and then again in the sixth and seventh game to take the scores to 6-6. Another tie-breaker round was enforced and Lopez took the upper hand in
the decider by pocketing some early points. The 18th seed Spaniard bagged victory by winding the third set at 7-6(2), booking a place in the second round of the Australian Open.
Unseeded Italian, Flavio Cipolla, is up next for Lopez in the next round.
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