Feliciano Lopez holds the distinction of being the only left-handed player to have beaten Rafael Nadal twice, but he came up some distance short of his best form today as Nadal eased into the quarterfinals, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Lopez has never managed to take a set off Nadal on hard courts and showed no signs of upsetting that trend today. The writing was really on the wall for the world No. 19 when, in his first service game, he backpedalled fast around his backhand and attempted to rip a cross-court forehand inside-out winner, a play we have seen Nadal make so many times. It went wide, the first of many tactical missteps from Lopez, and although he held serve, he was broken in the next game to put Nadal ahead after just 20 minutes. Lopez made the strange decision to stay behind the baseline, attempting to out-rally Nadal—he came to net just six times in the first set—and although he managed to keep the deficit to one break, listless execution peppered with unforced errors saw Lopez looking shell-shocked in his chair after Nadal served out the set.
It looked like more of the same after Lopez was broken again in the first game of the second set. But with Nadal serving at 2-1, Lopez pulled himself together and started using his backhand slice judiciously to earn three break points. The whole complexion of the match changed briefly as Lopez started standing up on the baseline and charging into net,earning a break back when a short.
Lopez has never managed to take a set off Nadal on hard courts and showed no signs of upsetting that trend today. The writing was really on the wall for the world No. 19 when, in his first service game, he backpedalled fast around his backhand and attempted to rip a cross-court forehand inside-out winner, a play we have seen Nadal make so many times. It went wide, the first of many tactical missteps from Lopez, and although he held serve, he was broken in the next game to put Nadal ahead after just 20 minutes. Lopez made the strange decision to stay behind the baseline, attempting to out-rally Nadal—he came to net just six times in the first set—and although he managed to keep the deficit to one break, listless execution peppered with unforced errors saw Lopez looking shell-shocked in his chair after Nadal served out the set.
It looked like more of the same after Lopez was broken again in the first game of the second set. But with Nadal serving at 2-1, Lopez pulled himself together and started using his backhand slice judiciously to earn three break points. The whole complexion of the match changed briefly as Lopez started standing up on the baseline and charging into net,earning a break back when a short.
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