'What I like the most about playing against Rafael Nadal...', says Spanish ace

On Wednesday evening, Feliciano Lopez came very close to tripping Rafael Nadal in Paris-Bercy. The director of the Mutua Madrid Open had indeed won the first set and had held up well throughout the second, but the former world number 1 had raised his level in the tiebreak by prolonging the contest. In the third, there was nothing for Feli to do, forced to suffer an honorable defeat in front of his compatriot. For the Majorcan, who never won the title at Bercy, a comeback with an even more special flavor, as it allowed him to seal his 1000th victory in the ATP circuit (joining Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer and Ivan Lendl in a restricted elite of samples). In the interview with 'El Transistor' immediately after the match, Lopez admitted that the tiebreak of the second set probably decided the outcome of the match. Just one minibreak made the difference in favor of the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

Lopez on Rafael Nadal

"When we reached the tiebreak I thought I could put pressure on him,” Feliciano Lopez said. “But Nadal played that tiebreak very well; at the worst moment, Rafael Nadal had his best version and served very well. What I like the most about playing against Rafa, the best of all is that there is a great sense of respect and friendship. But at the same time you are just as focused as another day when you play against another opponent,” Lopez said. Lopez also stressed that the mutual respect between him and Rafael Nadal meant that neither of them ever found the need to dispute a line call with the chair umpire. “Respect is very nice and sometimes leads us not to lower the chair-umpire (from his seat),” Lopez explained. The Director of the Madrid Open cited a recent example where he discussed the Real Madrid Champions League match with Rafael Nadal, “For example, we meet at the hotel before, the truth is that the usual relationship does not change anything, today, for example, we talked about the Madrid game yesterday,” Lopez added. Nadal has only one final at Bercy back in 2007, while last year he retired before the semi-final against Denis Shapovalov. Nadal's first ATP victory came when he was 15 years old. He beat Ramon Delgado, a Paraguayan then ranked No. 81 in the world, in a first-round match at the Mallorca Open in 2002, a victory which netted him 15 ATP Rankings points and a cheque for $5,850. Eighteen years, and almost $122 million in prize money, later Nadal is one of the most successful tennis players in history. At the French Open last month, he equaled Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam victories.  

 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2IgLlQH