Guillermo Garcia-Lopez battles past James Blake into 2nd round – Erste Bank Open 2011
Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez rallied past American James Blake in brutal three sets to reach the second round of the Erste Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event held at the Weiner Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. He registered
a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over the 31-year-old Blake on Tuesday.
World number sixty-eight, Lopez lost his track in the second round but dominated in the opening and the final set to overpower a former world number four, Blake in an hour and forty-five minutes long match. Meeting each other after
six years, the Spaniard not only avenged his loss at Stockholm but also levelled the head-to-head series by 1-1 against Blake.
Lopez thundered into the Austrian had courts and got the desiderated break in the opening game. Despite levelling the scores at 2-2, he unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to wipe out last four games in a row and clinched the opener
with a 6-2 victory. The Spaniard failed to save the only breakpoint faced but cashed in three out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
The American star re-focused in the second set and plucked in all six serves through exquisite forehands form his box of tricks. He warded off all three breakpoints came across and converted one out of four breakpoint opportunities
to his advantage in the last game. In addition to this, Blake capitalised on the several unforced errors Lopez coughed and eventually sealed the equaliser by winning seven games to five.
28-year-old Spaniard went into overdrive mode to pull out a victory in the final set. He broke the American’s serve twice and regardless of losing his serve in the end, Lopez clinched the decider with a 6-4 win. He failed to fend
off the only breakpoint faced but on the other hand capitalised on two out of five breakpoint chances to his advantage.
"To beat a really good player like James Blake you have to be happy," said the high spirited Spaniard. "He’s a really good player, talented, and of course I’m really happy to have a good start here in Vienna. I feel like I played
really solid from the baseline."
Next challenge for Lopez is the two time defending champion Jurgen Melzer of Austria.
"It’s going to be really tough," he said. "He plays really good here on indoor courts. He’s going to be really focused to win. He won the last two years, so we’ll see. I’ll try my best to beat him."
Third seeded Melzer received a first round bye after being a top four player in this event.
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