Young tops defending champ Garcia-Lopez in Bangkok

BANGKOK (AP) - American Donald Young beat defending champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-7 (0-7), 7-5 on Thursday in the second round at the Thailand Open.

The fourth-seeded Spaniard, who received a first-round bye, saw his title defense crumble after two hours and 30 minutes of a baseline battle.

Victory for the 22-year-old Young secured a place in his second ATP quarterfinals, having reached the semifinals in Washington last month.

"It feels great to get a win like that,'' said Young, who missed an early chance to wrap up the match when serving at 5-3. "He won the tournament last year. It's a great scenario for me, it's great to move on into the quarterfinal.

"Holding my nerve was the key. I tried not to get down when I had the chance to serve for the match. I was up quite early in the first set. I had chances to break him in the second, but I didn't make it. I just tried to stay focused with the task in hand.''

Young next plays Go Soeda of Japan, a 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) winner over Tobias Kamke of Germany.

Garcia-Lopez lost a one-sided first set and then had a trainer attend to a broken toenail.

"It is not the cause of my loss,'' he said. "I'm a professional tennis player. I just cannot play 100 percent all the time.''

After treatment, Garcia-Lopez moved better and stayed in rallies longer. He drew on his experience to dominate the second set tiebreaker as Young struggled for consistency.

In the deciding set, though, the Spaniard played a loose sixth game, spraying a long shot to hand his service game to Young and trail 4-2. The American was serving for the match at 5-3, but dumped a forehand into the net to give back a break.

However, after saving two match points with big serves, Garcia-Lopez sent two forehands to the net to end the match.