Lopez overcomes obstacles to down top seed
AUCKLAND: The top seed has fallen at the ASB Classic, after a dramatic secondround match yesterday.
Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez defied his age, an unforgiving schedule and a midmatch meltdown to upset world No 12 Fabio Fognini in a compelling contest.
The 38yearold came back from a set down to beat Fognini 36, 64, 63 in almost two hours.
It was a remarkable effort from Lopez, the oldest man in the draw, given he was forced to play his firstround match yesterday morning, due to the rain that ruined most of Tuesday’s play.
Lopez spent nearly 21⁄2 hours on court to overcome compatriot Pablo Andujar in three sets, before taking on the Italian barely 90 minutes later.
But Lopez, while admitting he was feeling sore and tired at the start of the Fognini match, overall framed the extra time on court as a positive, given he had not played a competitive match in 2020 before yesterday.
‘‘I think this is very good to play against Fabio [and] it would have been much tougher to face Fabio without any match this year,’’ Lopez said.
Fognini does not have a power game, but relies on great timing, impeccable touch and anticipation.
He landed only 47% of his first serves in the opening set, but that did not seem to matter. He outfoxed Lopez, grabbing a break opportunity and was then good enough to see it out.
A flash point came late in the set, when Lopez lost the plot over an umpire’s call.
Lopez made a late challenge, as a Fognini shot landed near his feet on the baseline. But the umpire thought Lopez wanted to refer his own subsequent shot, which sailed clearly wide.
‘‘I wanted to challenge the ball on the baseline, not the one I hit so far out,’’ Lopez said.
‘‘It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know why he gave me that ball. It was so far out, that ball . . . I think he misunderstood my call.’’
But the Spaniard recovered, and worked his way back into the match.
‘‘I had to be aggressive against a player like Fabio who is a better player than me from the baseline,’’ Lopez said.
That strategy worked. Lopez took the second set after a string of Fognini errors, then grabbed an early break in the third set which he never relinquished.
Earlier, twotime winner John Isner knocked out defending champion Tennys Sandgren in three sets.
The only previous meeting between the American pair went to three tiebreaks.
Isner finally bucked that trend yesterday when he claimed the first break in the fifth game of the final set on his way to a 76 (73), 67 (17), 63 triumph.
‘‘It’s always a tough match playing Tennys,’’ Isner said of the secondround match.
‘‘He does a lot of things really, really well on the court and when he and I match up it’s inevitably going to be close and that was the case today.’’
Sixth seed Hubert Hurkacz (Poland), Brit Kyle Edmund, young Frenchman Ugo Humbert and world No 24 Benoit Paire were among others to advance yesterday.
New Zealander Artem Sitak and Indian partner Divij Sharan upset the No 1seeded combination of New Zealander Michael Venus and Australian John Peers in a roundof16 doubles clash.