Santiago Giraldo upsets Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the opening round – Suisse Open Gstaad 2011
A major upset was witnessed by the local crowd present at the Credit Agricole Arena in Gstaad, Switzerland, as the sixth seeded Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, crashed out in the opening round of Credit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad, being defeated by the unseeded Colombian, Santiago Giraldo on Tuesday afternoon.
The 61st ranked Colombian competitor exhibited his brilliant tennis skills to take down the world number 37 Garcia-Lopez in a three-setter to get a berth in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event. Giraldo sealed his 22nd victory of the running ATP season at 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, disposing of the sixth seeded Spaniard from the tournament in a humiliating manner.
The contest lasted for one hour and thirty eight minutes, before the Colombian wrapped up victory in the third set to move one step closer to the quarter-final draws. Giraldo recovered from a one-set deficit with great mastery and reeled off two consecutive sets on the most authoritative note, by dropping just three games in two sets to seal victory.
Garcia-Lopez had a decent start in the opening set and stung an early serve break to lead 4-2. Giraldo registered his first break point conversion in the 10th game to level the scores at 5-5, only to be broken in the very next game to leave Garcia-Lopez serve for the set at 6-5. The Spanish bagged the opening set at 7-5 but utterly failed to sustain his momentum in the following set, letting his opponent bounce back at him.
Giraldo broke the Spaniard in his very first serve game in the second set and then launched a series of forays to transfer pressure upon Garcia-Lopez. The Colombian one more serve break in the eighth game to seal the second set at 6-2 and continued with his belligerence in the final set as well. Garcia-Lopez held his serve in just one game in the third set and suffered two cracking break points to let Giraldo fly away with an emphatic victory at 6-1.
Giraldo will now take on Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria in the second round of the tournament, as the Austrian was successful against the local qualifier, Yann Marti in the opening round.
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