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1/17/08 10:50 AM | Ricky Dimon
The Frenchman never lets Lopez into the match, as Gasquet cruises to an easy straight-set victory in the second round at Melbourne Park.
Eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet destroyed unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez on Wednesday in the second round of the Australian Open, producing spectacular tennis en route to a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 win. This matchup pitted Gasquet’s world-class backhand against Lopez’s lethal forehand, but it was the 21-year-old Frenchman who was on fire right from the start of the match and he never allowed Lopez to get into any kind of rhythm.
Right away it was painfully obvious that Gasquet would be in complete control of the contest. He served at a 67-percent clip in the first set and only dropped two points in four service games. Gasquet blasted 13 winners in the opening set, including two aces, while committing just two unforced errors. Lopez, on the other hand, struck nine unforced errors to just four winners.
It was only more of the same as the night dragged on. By the time Gasquet’s thorough dismantling of Lopez was all said and done, the Frenchman had put on a display of near-flawless tennis. Gasquet’s winners to unforced errors ratio was almost 3 to 1, with 35 winners as opposed to just 12 errors. Lopez, meanwhile, sprayed 30 errors and managed to get just 15 balls cleanly past his opponent.
Several other factors to contributed to Gasquet’s surprisingly dominant performance (the outcome was not a surprise, but the lopsided score was a bit unexpected). He served at an impressive 69-percent rate over the entire match and dropped only 11 points on serve, including just two on his second ball. Another telling statistic is Lopez, overmatched from the baseline, approached the net 48 times in the match and won just 20 of those points. Gasquet came up 23 times and won 18 of his net points.
Gasquet did a great job of dictating play and he was able to use his one-handed backhand while exploiting Lopez’s backhand, which is the Spaniard’s much weaker shot.
It was another mediocre Grand Slam result for the talented Lopez, who has made just one slam quarterfinal in his entire career (at Wimbledon in 2005).
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Did you know that... Ivo Karlovic and Joachim Johansson shares the record of most aces (51) in a match.
gordana, Dec 3, 2008 9:29 AM
RickyDimon, Dec 3, 2008 5:21 AM
Navratilovastillplay, Dec 3, 2008 12:32 AM
tennisgirl, Dec 1, 2008 11:48 PM
lendl, Dec 1, 2008 6:17 PM
Navratilovastillplay, Dec 3, 2008 1:32 AM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:23 PM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:02 PM
Richard Gasquet
Feliciano Lopez
Australian Open
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