Feliciano Lopez

A fifth Spaniard advanced to the quarter-finals on Friday as Feliciano Lopez defeated Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-4, 7-6(5). The left-hander broke serve twice to prevail in one hour and 45 minutes and reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season. For a place in the semi-finals Lopez will face Ivan Dodig.

Feliciano Lopez struck 16 aces in a 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. He will next meet 12th-seeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer will open his campaign against countryman Feliciano Lopez after the left-hander sent down 18 aces in a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. The 29-year-old Madrid native recorded his seventh tour-level win of the season and takes a 6-3 career lead into his clash with Ferrer.

Feli Lopez continued his recent good form with a solid first-up win over Haider-Maurer in Vienna, the Austrian paying tribute to Lopez's improved backhand slice saying; "...He was also an unpleasant opponent with his slice. It was hard to attack. I've really only played back the ball."

The Spaniard also stated; "I really like it here - it's the scene of my first and only trophy (won in '04 vs Canas). I was losing so much that I just had to do something about it. I didn't know what else, so I cut my hair. All of a sudden I started to win, so I don't want to change a thing now."

Career at the crossroads for Feli Lopez in my opinion. He won six games the other day as a $1.22 favourite indoors against Vassallo Arguello, a journeyman claycourter who hadn't played an ATP match under a roof since 2003.

Reports from the match suggest the Spaniard's body language was ridiculously poor, that he looked disinterested throughout and put little thought process into his game plan. The word was that MVA only needed to land the ball in court for two or three strokes before Lopez imploded, and this is simply not good enough as it happens far too much for the man who has often let off-court distractions including modelling get the better of his professional occupation.

His ranking is slipping severely by the minute due to the fact he is unable to defend a lot of the points he earned last year during a decent season, and it wouldn't surprise me too much if Lopez decides to take a bit of a break from the sport after Spain's Davis Cup final with the Czechs especially considering he's now no longer a proposition for singles and only gets a doubles match because of his great record with good friend Fernando Verdasco.

ferrer is makin to many mistakes! COME ON FERRER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!