Feliciano Lopez was made to work hard for his 400th career match win yesterday as he battled for three sets with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez before reaching the second round.
Sixth-seeded Lopez, a two-time runner-up in Dubai, has not had the best of times at tournaments this month as he had to retire from his quarter-final in Quito as he struggled to regulate his heartbeat, playing at high altitude, before losing in the first round in Marseille last week. But he made a great start against fellow Spaniard Garcia-Lopez, racing to a 5-0 lead en route to taking the first set but went down 1-3 in the second.
The world No24 broke back but Garcia-Lopez regained his advantage and leveled the match, forcing a decider.
Lopez opened up a 2-0 gap in the final set and got another break point in game five after a 29-shot rally that ended with a Garcia-Lopez wide backhand. But a good serve saw Garcia-Lopez save his third break point of the game and he held for 2-3 to avoid going down a double-break. But that was enough for Lopez and he sealed the win by successfully rushing the net.
Congratulations @feliciano_lopez! 4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣wins! #DDFTennis ??? pic.twitter.com/Cjvl0SQZV6
— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 22, 2016
He awaits the winner of today’s first round match between Indian wildcard Yuki Bhambri and Czech world No51 Lukas Rosol.
“Very happy, first of all, because I think it is a good number, 400 wins,” the 34-year-old Lopez said with a smile.
“It’s been a long time since I started playing tennis, and I’m very happy that I have been able to achieve this number. It means that I was also very lucky in terms of injuries. I have been able to play for almost 15 years.
“Guillermo is a tough player for me to face. He’s a very solid player. He has very good groundstrokes. He hits the ball really hard. But I was very aggressive. I think I was doing the right things, especially in the beginning of the match.”
