Mikhail Youzhny vs Feliciano Lopez – Second Round Preview: China Open 2011
The opening round of the China Open concluded on Tuesday and the race for the quarter-finals is about to set off in Beijing. In the second round matchup of the two unseeded contestants, world number 28, Feliciano Lopez of Spain,
will take on the 37th ranked Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, on Wednesday afternoon.
The contest will be played on the outdoor hard court of the Olympic Green Tennis Center, in Beijing, China, with the winner of the matchup getting a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
World Tour 500 event.
The Spanish competitor has been in a decent form but hasn’t bagged a championship title in the running season so far. Lopez has already registered 29 victories in the current year, while suffering defeats on 22 occurrences in the
singles encounters. The left-handed Spaniard is among the trickiest players on the courts and uses his angling cross-court strokes to perfection to take down his opponents.
Lopez was off to a brilliant start in the opening round of the China Open, defeating the Turk qualifier, Marsel Ilhan, in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(6), to book a spot in the second round. He faced limited resistance from his bleak
Turk opponent in the first round but is surely to get some tough time from the crafty Russian in the Wednesday’s matchup.
Youzhny registered a surprise victory in his opening match of the tournament, when he stunned the fourth seeded Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, to qualify for the second round. The Russian completely devastated the world number 11 in
straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to book a battle with Lopez.
The 29-year-old Russian veteran is running a 22-19 winning record in the current ATP season and like Lopez, is still searching for a singles title. Youzhny has seven ATP championship victories under his belt but he has been toiling
hard to get back his vintage form all this year.
Lopez has won the last three meetings with the Russian in singles matches and leads the all-time head-to-head series against Youzhny by 3-1. The last time these two men took each other was way back in 2004, when Lopez nailed Youzhny
in the semi-final clash in Dubai, winning in three-sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. The Russian has become a far established player in all these years and it is anticipated that he will take down Lopez this time round.
Youzhny have faced the Spaniard twice on hard courts, with both men bagging one victory apiece. The Russian was the runner-up in 2004 edition of the China Open and he will certainly desire to do much better this time round. Lopez
will step on court as the hot favourite but after defeating the 11th ranked Almagro a day ago, Youzhny will surely give some real tough time to the Spaniard.
The winner of the two will take on the former world number three, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, or the unseeded German contestant, Florian Mayer, in the quarter-final stage to fight for a berth in the semis. Ljubicic and Mayer will
go one-on-one against each other later on Wednesday afternoon.
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