Game Over for Super Mario
27 June 2005
By Barry Newcombe
Feliciano Lopez, the fierce serving Spanish left-hander, advanced to the last eight with a second successive win over a seeded player at Wimbledon today.
Lopez followed his victory over the fifth seed Marat Safin by beating the tenth seeded Croatian Mario Ancic 6-4. 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 40 minutes on Court 18.
The victory meant that Spain had a player in the quarter-finals for the first time since the left-handed Manuel Orantes in 1972. The last Spaniard to win Wimbledon was Manuel Santana in 1966.
With plenty of support in the crowd, Lopez played with high concentration and confidence to take control against one of last year's semi-finalists almost from the first point.
Ancic was under so much pressure against Lopez's serve that he managed to gain only three break points in fourteen service games - and that was when he broke serve for the only time in the second game of the second set.
Ancic, playing on Croatia's national day, was plagued with double faults - 15 in all against one by Lopez - and when he dropped serve at the start of the second set he threw his racket across court and received a warning for racket abuse.
By a curious twist, Ancic's only other defeat to a left-hander in a grand slam match was against another Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, at Wimbledon 2003.
Ancic has rightly been feared on grass because of he has won over 70 per cent of his matches on the surface but it was clear that he could find no method of dealing with the dedicated serve volley attack of Lopez.
Lopez served seven aces and had a highest service speed of 138 mph during the second set. But his second serve was menacing as well and he kept up the pressure superbly.
"I played a great match but since the beginning he was not serving with confidence," said Lopez. "He didn't play his best level and I did."
Lopez is the only left hander remaining at Wimbledon out of 17 who started.