Nicolas Almagro ousts Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals – Suisse Open Gstaad 2011
Top seed and defending champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated fifth seed, compatriot Feliciano Lopez in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals at the Credit Agricole Suisse Open in Gstaad on Friday. The Spaniard took
just an hour and eleven minutes to beat his opponent.
Almagro and Lopez held their serve in the first nine game of the opening set to take the score to 5-4 in favour of the former. The Spaniard broke Lopez in the tenth game and succeeded in serving out the set in the next game, claiming
it 6-4.
The number 10 ranked player delivered 51 percent of the first serves and two aces in the first set. Almagro troubled his opponent with his huge first serves as he won a whopping sixteen of the eighteen first service points. However,
the Spaniard did not perform that well with his second serve as he committed a couple of double faults and claimed just nine of the seventeen second service points. In comparison, big serving Lopez failed to live up to his reputation, delivering just 56 percent
of the first serves and a single ace in the opening set. The left-handed captured 61 percent of the points on the first serve and 57 percent of the points on the second serve in the first set.
The proceedings in the second set were not much different from the first set as Almagro and Lopez did not lose their serve in the most part of the set. Both Spaniards held their serve in the first eleven games to take the score
to 6-5 in Almagro’s favour. The 25-year-old broke his countryman in the twelfth game and held his serve in the next game to bag the set 7-5.
Almagro drastically improved his serve in the second set. The Spaniard bombarded his opponent with six aces and 73 percent of the first serves in the second set. The right-handed converted an amazing eighteen of the nineteen first
serves and six of the seven second serves into points. On the other hand, Lopez also improved his serve but he could not match his opponent. The 29-year-old fired three aces and kept his first serve percentage at 57 percent, winning 81 percent of the points
on them. The Madrid resident could not save the only break point he faced in the second set.
Almagro will face another countryman Fernando Verdasco, ranked 20th in the world, in the semi-finals. Verdasco beat French Julien Benneteau 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
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