Guillermo Garcia-Lopez tops Denis Istomin in first round of Barcelona Open
Spanish tennis pro Guillermo Garcia-Lopez defeated Uzbekistan’s top tennis player Denis Istomin in straight sets in their first round match at the 2011 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, undoing his opening round opponent to secure
a position in the next round of the ATP World Tour 500 Series tournament. The player, who is seeded twelfth, delivered a lopsided loss to Istomin with a 7-6(6), 6-3 defeat. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez took just a little over one hour and thirty-three minutes to
proceed to the second round.
The first set was a difficult one for both players, and Garcia-Lopez double faulted four times in an effort to keep his hold on the match. Both players scored one ace apiece, and Garcia-Lopez managed to convert two of four break
points against Istomin successfully. Istomin responded in kind, breaking Garcia-Lopez twice out of five opportunities. The set went into a tie-breaker, and the players rallied back and forth before Garcia-Lopez managed to win the set 7-6(6) with three points
more than his opponent, taking a total of 52 per cent of the points in the first set.
The second set was far less tight, as Denis Istomin seemed to have exhausted himself in the last set. He was obviously disappointed by the outcome, despite the fact that he fought on to break Garcia-Lopez twice. Istomin was broken
thrice himself, and only managed 29 per cent of his first serve points. Both players did not score any aces, although Guillermo Garcia-Lopez did double fault once. However, he was largely in control of the match from this point on and took ten points more
than his opponent to win the second set 6-3 with a whopping 61 per cent of the total points. Therefore, he won his first match at the 2011 edition of the tournament with a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory.
The World Number 27 has won two ATP career titles so far, and is 27 years old. He has defeated Istomin once before, and their head to head record is now 2-0. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez will face either compatriot Feliciano Lopez,
or Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round on Barcelona clay.
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