TENNIS ATP QUEEN’S – Feliciano Lopez and Grigor Dimitrov will face on Sunday for the right to lift the Aegon Championships’ trophy at Queen’s Club. From London, Giulio Gasparin
The Spaniard, 10 years after his first appearance in the London tournament, has reached his first final by defeating Radek Stepanek in two sets, while Dimitrov took down the first seed, Stan Wawrinka.
In the first semifinal of the day, the two highest seeds left in the draw faced each other for the third time in their careers.
Despite his two previous wins against the Bulgarian, Wawrinka started the match looking a lot more nervous than his opponent.
After a couple of battled holds, the Swiss suffered the rise of Dimitrov’s game, especially his terrific defences.
The world number three, who had never lost this year after the quarter finals, appeared more and more unconfident as his number of errors, especially with the beloved backhand, started to pile up.
From 2-2 in the first set, the fourth seed won four consecutive games to take the first set, including the point of the match as he chased a drop-shot from the Swiss and replied with another one while sliding on the grass onto a split.
In the second set, the Australian Open champion tried a reaction, but he failed to improve his return of serve, which let Dimitrov hold his serve with ease.
Frustration and anger for his level of play caught up with Wawrinka, who demolished his racket on the ground and finally broke it into two by using his knee.
A single break of serve was all the Bulgarian needed to take home the set and the match 6-2 6-4.
The final’s opponent of Dimitrov was set to come out of the clash between the only player left in the draw to have won a tournament on the surface, Lopez, and the slayer of the defending champion, Stepanek.
The Spaniard looked to be in full control of the first set, but despite being the one with most chances for a fundamental break, he failed to take any of these and so a tiebreak was needed.
Lopez was once again the front runner as he went up 6-3, but the experienced Czech fought back to 6-6, including what probably will be the point of the tournament, in which he saved several smashes from the 10th seed.
The Spanish player kept his cool and despite the missed chances, he found the focus to finally close the tiebreak 9-7.
The second set followed the pattern of the first one, but this time Stepanek could not avoid being broken.
Lopez managed to hold for the match for a final 7-6 6-4, which gave him the first final since his successful run at Eastbourne last year.
Dimitrov has faced the Spaniard only once before and curiously it was on the grass of Queen’s club in 2010, when Lopez won in two comfortable sets.
