Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ousts Paul-Henri Mathieu to reach quarters – Grand Prix Hassan II 2012
Spanish contestant, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, dumped the former world number 12, Paul-Henri Mathieu, in straight sets at the Grand Prix Hassan II 2012 on Wednesday. He penned down a 6-4, 6-2 success against the French veteran to charge into the quarter-finals
at the Complexe Al Amal in Casablanca, Morocco.
Garcia-Lopez stayed focused throughout the one hour and 38-minute marathon and ultimately carved out the victory against the world number 394. After outshining at this battle, the Spaniard not only avenged his loss at the Montreal Masters 1000 event three
years ago but also lowered the trail in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 1-2 against Mathieu.
The 28-year-old made quick in-roads at this ATP World Tour 250 series event and jumped to a 3-1 lead after drawing the first blood in the third game. Garcia-Lopez then maintained consistency in his game and after saving all three breakpoints he faced, the
Spaniard sealed the opener with a 6-4 win.
Ranked 80th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Garcia-Lopez kept momentum running into the proceeding set and earned the coveted break in the third game to go 2-1 up. Despite squandering his edge in the very next game, he unleashed
flurry of groundstrokes to go on a four-game tear and clinched the set with a 6-2 score line.
Summing up the Spaniard’s performance at this epic battle, Garcia-Lopez ruled throughout the match. He jolted down a better first serve share of 63 per cent in contrast with the French’s 48 per cent and clicked 27 out of 39 points on it.
Mathieu was continuing his comeback at this clay court event. He suffered a knee injury in the end of 2010 at the Swiss Indoors and did not hit the ball since February this circuit. The French however, made an impressive comeback and crushed the local wild
card entrant, Mehdi Ziadi, with a breadstick in his opening round match.
Up next for Garcia-Lopez is the Russian contender, Igor Andreev, who stunned the fourth seed, Denis Istomin, in a three set thriller to secure this spot. The Russian lost his serve once but capitalised on four out of 10 break opportunities to progress.
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