TENNIS ATP – Despite being from Spain, Feliciano Lopez preferred surface is grass and over the past two weeks, he has clearly shown why this is the case. He came within a point of lifting the AEGON Championships trophy last week against Grigor Dimitrov. At the 2014 AEGON International tournament, Lopez got it right. Scoring his first ever victory over the top seed Richard Gasquet, Lopez defended his title here at Eastbourne 6-3 6-7 7-5 for his 4th career title. Cordell Hackshaw
Despite being from Spain, Feliciano Lopez (3) preferred surface is grass and over the past two weeks, he has clearly shown why this is the case. He came within a point of lifting the AEGON Championships trophy last week against Grigor Dimitrov but faltered to see the Bulgarian take his first title on grass. However, this week, seeking redemption at the 2014 AEGON International tournament, Lopez got it right. Scoring his first ever victory over the top seed Richard Gasquet, Lopez defended his title here at Eastbourne 6-3 6-7 7-5 for his 4th career title. It was thrilling contest between the two but in the end, Lopez was just a bit more confident and precise on the big points. “[I]t’s a unique surface, the grass. And the way I play here is completely different from where I play on the other surfaces around the world … [M]y attitude was great,” said Lopez after the match.
Gasquet opened the match with a love service hold. Lopez looked a bit tired in his opening service game, perhaps because he has played both his quarterfinal and semifinal matches yesterday. He almost went down triple break points at 0-30 but pulled out an amazing forehand down the line to get back into the game and held serve. Knowing how dangerous of an opponent Gasquet and his lethal backhand can be, Lopez began to be more aggressive on the court, particularly coming to net more often. Lopez broke the Frenchman in the 3rd game and consolidated the break to go up 3-1. Gasquet was unable to make any impact on the Lopez’s serve at this point in the match but held serve twice to be down the single break at 3-5. However, he was unable to stop the charge of Lopez’s return game during the 9th game as he was serving to stay in the set. Lopez ended the set with a flourished backhand passing shot for 6-3 in 28 minutes.
Lopez has won a few sets with ease against Gasquet in their previous five meetings but winning a 2nd set in the same match proved to be the difficult task. Thus one expected this match to go a third set. Gasquet began to be more assertive on the court and his backhand which was failing miserable in the first set was not paying dividends in the second. Lopez who had been so solid on serve all week soon found himself down triple break points in the 7th game. He saved two break points with monster serves but was unable to produce a third to get to deuce. Gasquet broke and served to extend the lead to 5-3. However, Lopez broke back for 4-4. The set remained on serve for the next four games to have matters be decided in a tiebreaker. Gasquet took an early lead in the tiebreaker up 4-2 but Lopez was able to level it at 5-5. Down 5-6, Lopez was serving to get to 6-6, failed to execute successfully his famous serve and volley play and saw Gasquet take the 2nd set 7-6(5).
Gasquet started off the 3rd set with the impression as though he was going to take the set in a hurry. He held serve and had two break points to go up 2-0. However, the chair umpire issued a second time violation warning to Lopez and it seemed to have enflamed the Spaniard. Lopez looked more determined on court and saved those break points. In the 10th games, down 4-5, Lopez again pulled out his big serves to keep the match alive. Gasquet who was holding serve with ease throughout the decisive set, became complacent in the 11th game and was broken when his volley went well long. Lopez served for the match up 6-5. In style, Lopez punctuated the match with two aces to take it 6-3 6-7 7-5. He fell to the ground and kissed the grass as he defended his title for his second career title on grass.
There is no doubt that Lopez deserved this title for over the past two long and arduous weeks the Spaniard has been the most consistent player on grass. Even Gasquet agreed: “[H]e’s playing good. He serves incredible. He start to play with the slice. So he has a perfect game for grass court. He fight a lot, tough mentally in the third set.” There was not much to separate the two in the match as Gasquet had 40 winners and 21 errors and Lopez had 44 winners and 26 errors. Gasquet was winning 75% of his 1st serve points and 66% on 2nd serve whereas Lopez won 72% on his 1st serves and 62% on his 2nd serve. However, the major difference would be their net game; Lopez won 32 of 52 net points in the match compared to 11 of 18 from Gasquet. He was the one taking more chances and avoiding the baseline rallies which Gasquet was more inclined to play. Having done so well at the warm up tournaments, Lopez is excited about Wimbledon: [I]t’s the best tournament you can play in the world, and everybody is waiting for this moment to come. I’m very happy that I’m going to play my 50th I think Grand Slam consecutive, and it’s going to be there at Wimbledon. So that makes the record more special.” Lopez, seeded 19th at Wimbledon, will play a qualifier, Yuichi Sugita in first round. There is a possible 3rd round encounter between him and American John Isner (9) if seeds hold true to form.
