There’s nothing worse than being classified as a fluke or a one-off. Feliciano Lopez and Fabio Fognini stepped out onto the Louis Armstrong Stadium intent on not falling into this unwanted category after their big wins over Milos Raonic and Rafa Nadal respectively.
In what was their first ever meeting, the 33 year-old Spaniard made use of his wide variety of tactical and technical weapons to cruise to a 6-3, 7-6, 6-1 victory. The tall lefty displayed an impressive first serve which, despite only registering seven aces, gifted the veteran a number of cheap points (in total 82% of first serve points won, as opposed to Fognini’s 59%), and also mixed up the rhythm of play with sliced backhands and darting runs to the net which the Italian had no answer for.
Fognini enjoys the constant backcourt tempo of play which Nadal produces and takes advantage of it to unleash his double-hand backhand as a weapon. Up against Lopez however, the magician from San Remo barely ever had any pace from which to feed off and what was a weapon in the previous round had turned into a run-of-the mill shot.
The Italian who couldn’t come up with the answers to solve the complicated equation presented to him by Feliciano Lopez was a virtual spectator in the third set, looking more eager to hit the showers and put an end to the suffering than searching for ways to solve the puzzle.
With this result, 18 of the last 21 players to have defeated Nadal have gone on to lose their following match. Food for thought. As for Lopez, he has made it his mission to avenge the defeats of his fellow Spaniards: Raonic (Verdasco), Fognini (Nadal) and most probably Djokovic in the quarter finals, who takes on Bautista in the fourth round.
There will be time for Lopez to think about that but for now the newly-wed can enjoy his first ever outing to the quarter finals of the US Open; the fourth in his career at a Grand Slam.
