Guillermo Garcia Lopez slays Pablo Andujar in the opener – Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2012
Ranked 85th in the world, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain staged an upset by beating world number 36, Pablo Andujar, in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 in the first round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Italy on Tuesday.
Garcia-Lopez took just an hour and 29 minutes to undo his opponent in an easy match.
The Spaniard hit a blow to his compatriot in the very first game of the encounter but Andujar responded immediately to break back and level the score at 1-1. Garcia-Lopez looked in top form, as he struck once again in the third
and this time he succeeded in holding his following serve to grab a 3-1 lead. He did not allow Andujar to come back later on, closing it 6-4.
Garcia-Lopez committed one double fault but compensated that by hitting the same number of ace. The Spaniard put in 64 percent of the first serves and converted 18 of the 25 of them into points. On the other hand, Andujar was himself
to blame for his poor result, as he committed three double faults and hit just 50 percent of the first deliveries.
In the second set, both players held their serve in the first two games to even out the score at 1-1. However, there was no stoppage for Garcia-Lopez after that, as he broke Andujar three times and captured five successive games
to seal it 6-1.
The 28-year-old, Garcia Lopez, banged in two aces and 62 percent of the first serves in the second set. He had a stunning conversion rate, as he bagged amazingly all the eight first and four of the five second delivery points.
The Spaniard was superior to his opponent in all departments of the game, claiming eight of the 14 first and eight of the 13 second return points. The 6ft 2in tall did not provide Andujar any break opportunity and utilised three of the five he got of his own.
Garcia-Lopez now has a 13-11 win-loss record in 2012. The Spaniard has not cleared the second round in any of his four previous tournaments. Starting this trend last month, he upset by Czech player, Jan Hajek, in three sets 6-0,
4-6, 6-7(1) in the round of 16 at a challenger event in Rome. The right-hander lost to world number 12, Gilles Simon, in the round of 32 at the Mutua Madrid Open last week.
The Spaniard will try to take his revenge and end this trend, as he faces Simon again in the second round of this event.
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