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4/22/09 7:00 PM | Ricky Dimon
Fernando Verdasco ousts Nicolas Lapentti in straight sets on Wednesday afternoon in Barcelona. Fernando Gonzalez joins him in the third round with a straight-set victory over Jose Acasuso.
(2) Fernando Verdasco d. (Q) Nicolas Lapentti 7-5, 6-3
Fernando Verdasco recovered from a break deficit in each set to subdue Lapentti after one hour and 39 minutes in the second round of the Open Banco Sabadell on Wednesday afternoon. To the chagrin of the Spanish crowd, Verdasco came out flat and a succession of unforced errors gave Lapentti a break of serve in the opening game of the match. The 32-year-old Ecuadorian consolidated the advantage until two backhand errors at 4-3, 30-30 allowed Verdasco to get back on even terms. Three holds later, Lapentti was faced with the task of serving to stay in the set at 5-6. He cracked under pressure, however, and a missed volley at 30-30 followed by an unforced error from the baseline handed the opening frame of play to his opponent. Despite having the momentum firmly in hand, Verdasco dropped serve for the second straight time in the opening game of a set. This time Lapentti did not wait to throw the advantage away. A double-fault on break point at 1-0 cost him the early second-set lead. Although Lapentti took care of his next two service games to stay on serve at 3-4, the same thing happened again. The world No. 74 got broken at love in a game that was capped off with yet another double-fault on break point. With Verdasco now having an opportunity to serve out the match, it was his turn to go down 0-40. But the No. 2 seed saved all three break chances and eventually finished off the proceedings on his second match point. Next up for Verdasco is Tomas Berdych, a three-set winner over Oscar Hernandez.
(5) Fernando Gonzalez vs. Jose Acasuso 6-4, 6-4
This time Gonzalez did not need his rowdy Chilean following to defeat Jose Acasuso in straight sets. Gonzalez, who improved his head-to-head record against the Argentine to 8-2 with a 6-1, 6-3 drubbing in the Vina Del Mar title match two months ago, got the best of Acasuso again on Wednesday afternoon. While this one was not quite as easy, Gonzalez needed just two sets and one hour and 11 minutes to reach the Barcelona third round. The No. 5 seed earned the first service break of the match midway through set one, and that was enough as Gonzalez dropped only seven points in his first five service games and did not face a single break point. Unlike in the relatively back-and-forth Verdasco-Lapentti match, Gonzalez knew what to do with a lead. He capitalized on his momentum with an early break in the second and never looked back. While he ran into a bit of trouble in maintaining his one-break advantage, the world No. 14 saved all four of the break points he faced in part thanks to serving at 72 percent in set two and winning 81 percent of his first-serve points. A routine service hold at 5-4 finished off Acasuso and booked Gonzalez a third-round encounter with either Juan Monaco or Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
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