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, soft serve from Nadal was punished with a ripped cross-court return, which Nadal could only get to with the tip of his racquet. In the next game, Nadal's break-point conversion rate dropped to two of 13 as Lopez gutted out a big hold. It was only temporary, however, as a couple of volley errors saw Nadal take the break again. From that point it was one-way traffic.
Lopez had one more small opportunity, with Nadal up a break and serving at 3-2 in the third. At 30-30, one of Nadal’s shots dropped well short, but instead of attacking, Lopez elected to stay back and rally until Nadal peppered his backhand for the error. Lopez would not hold serve again.
It was not Nadal’s best performance and a stronger opponent—or Lopez on a better day—might well have made him pay; although Rafa served at 80 percent for the match, many of those serves were predictable in their placement and dropped short, as did a lot of his baseline balls. He converted only five of 18 break points, neglected to attack Lopez’s second serve, and looked surprisingly anxious at moments. He produced love service games when it mattered, however, and his margin of victory was comfortable. He may expect a sterner test from either Tomas Berdych or Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals.
—Hannah Wilks