Feliciano Lopez: Ready to Defeat France's Players for a Second Time
Knee injuries appear to be recurrent reasons for recent Davis Cup withdrawals, which are affecting several teams during the upcoming quarter-finals.
One of these teams is France, which will not be able to compete with one of its key players, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The young Frenchman has a knee injury, which was worsened by his brilliant performance at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.
Similarly, the World No. 1, Rafael Nadal, has recently withdrawn from the Spanish team for the very same reason. The two teams, France and Spain, will be facing one another for the Cup’s quarter-finals this weekend.
The French captain is hoping that Gilles Simon will accept the offer to participate in the tournament. However, Simon admitted that he had planned to rest in order to be assured that his chronic knee injury would not strike again. Meanwhile, others have answered the call: the highly ranked Gael Monfils, Michael Llodra, and Julien Benneteau.
Spain remains confident that its team has strong players that are skilled enough to make up for the champion’s absence. The captain expressed in an interview: "It's always a setback [to be without Nadal] but the players going are very good."
The Davis Cup Spain team now includes World No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, 12th seed David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro, and famous Feliciano Lopez. Lopez was in 2005 the first Spanish player to participate in the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Manuel Orantes in 1972. He also played the longest match (16-14) in the Australian Open history, but lost to Gilles Müller.
The Spaniard had quite an eventful year. He entered the 2010 Australian Open as third seed, and reached the third round by defeating Pablo Cuevas, and Rainer Schüttler. He then lost to the American 7th seed Andy Roddick in a tight 4 sets 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6, 6-7(3).
He then competed in the 2010 SA Tennis Open, and was seeded third once again. At this competition he defeated Benjamin Balleret, Blaž Kavčič, and Rajeev Ram. He then went on to the semi finals, where he faced the top seed Gaël Monfils, who will replace Tsonga during the Davis Cup France team against Spain. Lopez defeated the Frenchman 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(1), and reached the final. He then won against the 8th seed Stéphane Robert 7-5, 6-1. This victory enabled him to gain his first title in the past five and a half years, obtaining his 2nd ATP-level title.
He then participated at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, where he defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu, and reached the third round. Next he faced the 6th seed Robin Söderling—Nadal’s worse rival—and lost 6-7(3), 4-6.
During the first tournament of the European Clay season - the 2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters - he was unlucky enough to face the 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomáš Berdych. He lost 3-6, 2-6 to the Czech, who was powerful enough to defeat Roger Federer during Wimbledon. The Spaniard, however, did not give up, and entered a grass tournament, the 2010 AEGON Championships. He defeated then Grigor Dimitrov, before facing Julien Benneteau, who is part of the Davis Cup France team. He defeated the Frenchman 6-2, 6-4.
He then caused the biggest upset of his career by winning against the 2010 French Open and Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal 7-6(5), 6-4. He reached the final, but lost to Mardy Fish 3-6, 4-6.
Having defeated two members of the French team this year, Monfils and Benneteau, Lopez is set to bring glory to his team against the French in Clermont-Ferrand, a southern central city close to Lyon. This victory would also enable him to reach for another title this year, which has been prolific for him so far.
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