Guillermo Garcia-Lopez destroys Radek Stepanek in first round – Mercedes Cup 2011
Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez destroyed Czech Radek Stepanek during the 1st round of 2011 Mercedes Cup at the Tennis Club Weissenhof, Stuttgart, Germany as he managed to stick out the seventy six minute match unbroken.
The number eighth seed; Garcia, had a comprehensive 6-1, 6-3 win over Stepanek, winning both the sets. The 32-year-old Czech failed to avail the four break point chances and instead dropped to a 15-15 match record. Stepanek won
just 32 percent of his second-serve points and committed seven double faults and hence, lost the match.
The first set saw Garcia win thirteen of twenty service points making it a sixty five percent win against Stepanek who only managed to win forty one percent of his first service points. Total return points were also won by Garcia
thus giving him a total fifty nine percent win to outsmart Radek thus giving him a 1-0 lead. During the second set of the match Lopez served two aces, won twenty two out of thirty four service points, thirty eight percent of total return points and won fifty
three percent of total points giving the Espanola a 2-0 victory to the second round of the Mercedes Cup.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the Spaniard, ranks at 37 in the world while his opponent Radek Stepanek holds the 57th position as of July 2011. Prior to this match the two contesters have battled against each other just once at the Open
Sabadell Atlantico, Barcelona where Radek had defeated Lopez in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win.
2011 ATP World tour has been a great year for the Espanola (Garcia Lopez) he has managed to win fifteen matches and has contested in three grand slams, his most recent being at Wimbledon where he lost in the second round to Karol
Beck 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 record. Then at the Roland Garros he qualified the first two rounds but lost in the third to Fabio Fognini. He again managed to qualify the first two rounds of the Australian Cup but fell victim to ATP ranking, number 5, Andy Murray.
Last year was the height of his career when the 28-year-old broke into the top 30’s for the first time. With a yearend high at 33, he won 10 of 12 matches on the Asian circuit. He then went onto defeating Rafael Nadal in the Semi-finals
of Bangkok tournament in Thailand and later captured the title against Nieminen. Another highlight of 2010 was where he experienced playing Novak Djokovic and although he lost the match it was the experience that he counted.
Garcia-Lopez will face a wild card entry Lukaz Kubot or Daniel Gimeno-Traver for a spot in the quarter-final of the Mercedes Cup 2011.
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