Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beats Thiemo De Bakker in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open
World number 29, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain had least trouble in disposing off the Dutch qualifier, Thiemo De Bakker in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open at the Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday. The Spanish
needed just one hour and thirteen minutes to settle the final scores at 6-2, 6-3 to move into the third round of the $4,500,000 tournament.
Garcia-Lopez exhibited his brilliant clay-court tennis skills to outplay the Dutch competitor in straight sets. He was defeated by De Bakker at Roland Garros last year but turned out to be absolutely devastating for the Dutch this
time. The Spaniard registered his 12th victory of the running ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season and is one step away from the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open.
With the local crowd enchanting on her back, Garcia-Lopez cruised through the contest with the utmost ease, beating Bakker in every segment of the game. His opening round victory over the world number 14, Stanislas Wawrinka gave
him the sky high confidence, which was clearly noticed in the matchup against Bakker. The 27-year-old Spaniard took hold of the game right from the beginning and then never let the reins go in the rest of the matchup.
The only point of concern in Garcia-Lopez’s game was his drastically low serve precision of 42 per cent. He still managed to reel off 20 out of 21 first serve points on it without dropping it once, while striking three serve breaks
to the opponent’s serve. Bakker had just one chance to register a break point in the entire competition but he frittered away the opportunity to remain on the losing end.
The Spaniard drew first blood in the opener, when he broke Bakker to get to a 3-0 commanding lead. Although his serve percentage was pathetically low to 39 in the first set, Garcia-Lopez clinched all the first serve points on it.
A routine game took the scores to 5-2 when a second break point from The Spaniard sealed off the opening set at 6-2.
The second set was almost a replication of the first one, with Garcia-Lopez striking a serve break early and then consolidating his position in the contest. After successfully defending the only break point at 5-3, The Spaniard
secured two more points to conclude victory at 6-3.
Garcia-Lopez will either be facing world number two, Novak Djokovic of Serbia or the South African competitor, Kevin Anderson in the third round of the Mutua Madrid open. Djokovic and Anderson will be battling out on Wednesday
and the winner among the two will take on Garcia-Lopez in the third round.
Tags: