Feliciano Lopez upsets Juan Monaco in the opening round of the Serbia Open
Another surprise struck the crowd at Belgrade, Serbia when Feliciano Lopez of Spain outplayed the eighth seed Juan Monaco of Argentina in the first round of the Serbia Open, being played at the Tennis Center Novak complex on Tuesday.
The 37th ranked Spaniard wrapped up an emphatic straight sets victory 6-4, 7-5, over Monaco in one hour and thirty eight minutes to qualify for the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
An entertaining game of pro tennis was witnessed at Belgrade with the unseeded Spanish coming out as the winner in the end. Lopez continued his winning streak against Monaco, whom he has defeated in the last two encountered they
have faced each other. The Spaniard extended his all-time head-to-head series lead to 3-1 and registered his 11th win of the running ATP season to dispense out Monaco from the clay-court tournament.
“The wind is the worst thing for the players to adjust to. Playing with this wind is very difficult,” Lopez reflected after winning the contest, “I’m so happy because my performance today was very good for the conditions that we
played.”
The hard-hitting Argentine was led down by his error-ridden game in the contest, as he committed a number of mistakes, including four costly double faults in the match. Monaco dropped the opener early but posed some serious resistance
in the next set to give a tough time to his opponent. However, Lopez displayed his steel nerves to cruise through the intense pressure situations of the contest and concluded victory in the second set to step into the next stage of the Serbia Open.
The Spaniard served poorly in the opening set but reeled away 20 out of 26 serve points to keep one step ahead of his opponent. Lopez capitalized upon three double faults of his rival, crafting one opportunity to break Monaco’s
serve at 5-4 and bagged the first set to get one up in the contest.
Lopez broke early in the second set but Monaco retaliated this time and stung his first serve break of the match at 3-4 to get back on even terms with him. The Argentine hung in till 5-5, when Lopez clouted his second decisive
serve break to eject Monaco out of the competition.
Up next for Lopez in the second round is the wildcard entrant from Chile, Fernando Gonzalez, who won his opening round clash against the Slovakian qualifier, Martin Klizan.
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