With his three-set win over Gilles Simon (3-6, 6-3 y 6-7), Feliciano L\u00f3pez sealed his pass to the next round of the Mutua Madrid Open. The next hurdle he has to clear will be world number 2 Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard was happy with his day\u2019s work and with his current form: \u201cI really am very happy. In a year that started badly for me, with my back problems, I am much better and I feel competitive on court. Playing like I should be\u201d, he recognized in a press conference.<\/p>\n
The player from Toledo is now focusing on his next match: \u201cTomorrow I have to serve well, it is the main weapon I have to take on Novak\u201d, he stated. \u201cI have to try and play intelligent tactics\u201d, he added. Djokovic knocked out another Spaniard, Nicol\u00e1s Almagro, to reach the third round.<\/p>\n
Feliciano, has played the Serb on previous occasions and managed to cause him significant difficulties: \u201cI think New York was the best match I have played against him. In Belgrade I also had a chance to win\u201d, he remembered. He then came back to the present to make it clear that the ATP world number 2 continues to be a dangerous player: \u201cI saw the match against Almagro and I think he played very well\u201d, he said. \u201cPerhaps he is a lacking a little confidence, just like I and everyone else are. But I expect the Novak Djokovic we all know\u201d, he stated.<\/p>\n
He also had time for a brief look back at his history at the Mutua Madrid Open since his first year in 2002: \u201cWhen they gave me the invitation it was a dream for me to play at the tournament. Suddenly I was in the third round and playing against one of my childhood heroes and I nearly beat him\u201d, he said with a hint of nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Returning to his next match at the tournament, he was keen to highlight the respect he has for his opponent and how much he loves playing in the Caja M\u00e1gica: \u201cPlaying against one of the best players in history at home is a bonus\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With his three-set win over Gilles Simon (3-6, 6-3 y 6-7), Feliciano L\u00f3pez sealed his pass to the next round of the Mutua Madrid Open. The next hurdle he has to clear will be world number 2 Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard was happy with his day\u2019s work and with his current form: \u201cI really am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[41,15,55,16,753,17],"class_list":["post-76917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mutua-news","tag-atp-en","tag-caja-magica-en","tag-feliciano-lopez-en","tag-madrid-en","tag-masters-1000-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}