Guillermo Garcia-Lopez wins the epic battle against Marsel Ilhan in the second round – French Open 2011
One the most enthralling contest of this year’s Roland Garros was witnessed on Wednesday afternoon, when the 30th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain took down the Turkish opponent, Marsel Ilhan in the second round
of the competition.
The Spaniard laboured extremely hard for almost four hours before he wrapped up the five-set thriller 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 13-11, to book a berth in the third round of the Grand Slam event.
It was a treat to watch for the tennis fans present at Paris, France, as the two players put up their extraordinary efforts to come out as the winner. Amazing momentum swings were seen in every set of the contest, ending after
a nail biting finish. Garcia-Lopez drew the first blood in the contest, clinching the opening set but the Turk opponent bagged the next set to bring him down to even terms.
The two competitors took one more set each before a decisive fifth set commenced. Crowd’s excitement rose to the maximum as the fifth set was stretched to a total of 24 games, as none of the players was willing to submit the contest.
The Spaniard held his nerve in the intense pressure situations till the end and finally outplayed resilient Ilhan in the fifth set to move on to the third round of the tournament.
Both men faced each other for the first time last year at Rotterdam, where Ilhan stood victorious in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, in the round of 32. The Spaniard avenged his defeat by registering his 13 win of the running ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) season and levelled the head-to-head series against Ilhan at 1-1.
The action-packed back-and-forth affair exhibited the best of the skills these two men have. Garcia-Lopez delivered just 56 per cent of his first serve on target but reeled off 77 out of 95 points on it, while breaking the opponent’s
serve five out of 14 times. He fired 13 aces in the contest but also spilled out 17 doubled faults, which nearly cost him match.
Ilhan hung in the contest till the end but conceded 77 unforced errors, which eventually wore him out in the game. After toiling for three and a half hours, the contest was still evenly poised at 2-2 and a decisive fifth set came
into play. Plenty of match points were received by both players, extending the set to 24 games before Garcia-Lopez sealed out victory at 13-11 to advance to the third round of the French Open.
He will face the Italian, Fabio Fognini, who was successful against the French qualifier, Stephane Robert, in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, in the second round.
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