Rafael Nadal ousts Feliciano Lopez to reach the quarters – Australian Open 2012
World number two, Rafael Nadal trashed his 18th seeded compatriot, Feliciano Lopez, in straight sets at the Australian Open 2012, first of the four Grand Slam events held on the hard courts in Melbourne, Australia. He clobbered a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
victory over the 30-year-old and advanced to his sixth straight quarter-final on Sunday.
Second seed remained on course to bid his second Australian Open title after trashing Lopez in their eleventh meeting. Nadal not only extended lead in the head-to-head series by 9-2 against his fellow Spaniard, ranked 19th in the ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, but also booked a spot in the final four.
“I am fine,” said the high flying Spaniard, who hasn’t lost a set in this tournament. “It was a very, very hot day. I think it’s positive to keep winning in straight sets.”
A former world number one, Nadal flashed into the opening set and drew the first blood in the third game to eventually go 3-1 up. Later, he held remaining serves and bagged the opener with a 6-4 win. He received ankle treatment after the third game but maintained
his composure to pull out the opener in almost an hour.
The 2009 titlist carried his rhythm from the first set into the second set and earned the desiderated break in the opening game. Regardless of levelling the scores at 2-2, he broke Lopez’s serve again in the seventh game and kept remaining serves to clinch
the set with a 6-4 score line again.
Spanish number one progressed into the last set with the same momentum and broke his compatriot’s serve in the opening game. He smoothly kept entire serves after fending off the only breakpoint he came across. Nadal then broke his rival’s serve again in
the seventh game and pocketed the set with a 6-2 score line in 39 minutes.
All in all, Nadal displayed top notch performance in this match. He formulated a better first serve share of 80 percent as opposed to Lopez’s 57 percent and earned spectacular 46 out of 57 points on it. The Spaniard also smacked 20 winners and committed
14 unforced errors in contrast with his opponent’s 52, which made the difference.
Next up for the second seed is the winner of the match between seventh seed, Tomas Berdych, and 10th seed, Nicolas Almagro. Nadal needs to play his original game to outclass his opponent in order to bid for his first semi-final in three years.
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