Garcia-Lopez/Marc Lopez upset James Cerretani/Philipp Marx in 1st round – Suisse Open Gstaad 2011
A hard-fought victory for the Spanish duo of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Marc Lopez, as they stunned the third seeded pair of James Cerretani of the United States and Philipp Marx of Germany in the opening round of Credit Agricole
Suisse Open Gstaad on Monday afternoon.
Being part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 clay swing, the competition was staged at the Credit Agricole Arena in Gstaad, Switzerland, with the Spaniards straining hard to come out as the winners
in a three setter. Garcia-Lopez and Lopez settled the final scores at 2-6, 6-4, 11-9, in their favour after a nail biting finish to the contest.
Cerretani and Marx fought till the last minute of play and hung in the contest for one hour and thirteen minutes before eventually succumbing in the decisive third set. They took hold of the game early by clinching the first set
but let their Spanish opponents to make a comeback in the competition by dropping the second set. The final set was stretched to its limits before Garcia-Lopez and Lopez bagged it to conclude victory and earned a place in the quarter-finals of the Suisse Open
Gstaad.
The opening set took off with a serve break from Cerretani and Marx in the second game to lead 3-0 early in the game. Four crucial double faults from Garcia-Lopez and Lopez let their opponents to strike another break point towards
the end of the first set, which closed out the opener at 6-2, favour of Cerretani and Marx. A total of 39 points were played in the opening set, with Cerretani and Marx securing 27 and Garcia-Lopez and Lopez lagging far behind with just 12 points.
Garcia-Lopez and Lopez made a fiery start in the second set and cracked in a serve break in the very first game to lead 2-0. The Spaniards collected 12 out of 17 first serve points in the set and successfully defended three break
points they faced from the third seeded duo. Cerretani and Marx failed to recover from the early damage done by the serve break and eventually submitted the second set to the Spaniards at 4-6.
Garcia-Lopez and Lopez took their winning impetus to rocket away to victory in the third set, which they closed out at 11-9 to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the tournament. The Spaniards will face either the pair of Victor
Hanescu of Romania and Rogier Wassen of Netherlands or the other Spanish duo of Pablo Andujar and Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the quarter-final matchup.
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