Tennis Update: Spanish Duo Marc Lopez and David Marrero Ruled the Clay in Hamburg Doubles
It was an eventful day at the German Open Tennis Championships played in Hamburg, Germany. The doubles quarter finals are up and some of them are more interesting than others. The interesting match was of the Spanish duo Marc Lopez and David Marrero against d**k Norman and Wesley Moodie. Norman and Moodie hailing from Belgium and South Africa reached the quarter finals after beating German double partners Tobias Kamke and Julian Reister by 7-6(2), 6-4. Lopez and Marrero reached the quarter finals after beating Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci and Argentinean Maximo Gonzalez 7-6(6), 6-2.
Norman and Moodie were the favourites for the play, who are also fourth seeded for this tournament. The Rothenbaum Tennis Center was echoing with the crowd cheer apparently for both the sides. In one and a half hour, Lopez/Marrero sent Norman/Moodie packing. The first set was good for Norman/Moodie as the duo scored some 3 aces and won 28 serve points. In a close match up the set resulted in a tie. In the tie breaker, Norman and Moodie scored the victory against Lopez and Marrero. Lopez and Marrero could score only 4 points in the breaker.
The second set was also aces deficient, as the only aces scored were by Moodie and Norman. Lopez and Marrero failed to score even a single ace against their opponents. Despite that, they took the set. Thanks to the 20 out of 25 serve points and 9 return points. They took the set by 6-4. Moodie and Norman were lacking as far as serve points and break points were concerned. On the other hand, Lopez/Marrero lacked in aces, so in a way both the sides were showing an equal competition.
For most of the third set, the game went pretty close. Both the sides were colliding head to head to clinch the victory. 4th seeded Moodie/Norman was again a bit ahead of the Spanish duo but in the end crumbled to a 10-7 victory for their opponents. The last set went pretty smoothly and before anyone knew, it was over. Lopez/Marrero took the match 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-10.
Lopez and Marrero will now play Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in the semi finals. Melo and Soares even in a competing battle, easily destroyed Slovakian Filip Polasek and Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6(5), 6-5 in around 1 hour 20 minutes, who were in the quarter finals after staging an upset against the top seeded Polish duo Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg. 5 aces were scored in the whole match where Melo/Soares converted 41 serve points and 24 return points.
In another quarter final Andreas Beck and Christopher Kas playing on their home ground, their second tournament together defeated Czech Frantisek Cermak and Slovakian Michal Mertinak. The victory was comfortable for the first set with a 6-2 win. For the second set, however the Germans faced a tie due to the strong resistance put up by their opponents. In the tie breaker though they took the victory against the 3rd seeded Cermak/Mertinak by 7-6(7).
In the fourth quarter finals, Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Paul-Henri Mathieu were victorious against the defending champions Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley. Aspelin and Hanley who took the title for German Open in 2009 had to retire in the second set after only half an hour of the match. The first set was also comfortably taken by Chardy and Mathieu. Chardy and Mathieu both are playing as alternates for Garcia-Lopez and Montanes.
The German Open has been full of surprises as none of the seeded players were able to make it to the semi finals. Semi finals will be played between Chardy/Mathieu vs. Beck/Kas and Melo/Soares vs. Lopez/Marrero. The two winners will then play the final for the German Open Doubles 2010 on the red clay court of the Rothenbaum Tennis Center. The German Open ends 25th July and has prize money of 1,115,000 Euros.
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