Feliciano Lopez plans to end his career: The Spanish left-hander wants to end his sporting career after the 2019 season – and thus after about 21 years on the professional tour. But “Feli” remains in tennis.
Judy Murray hoped at the beginning that the news spilling over from Spain to Great Britain would be one thing: “Fakenews”. But Andy Murray’s mother soon realized that Feliciano Lopez really intended to end his career at the end of the upcoming season.
“I want to quit when I’m still competitive. I plan to play in 2019, and if everything goes as I think it will be my last year as a professional,” said 37-year-old Lopez on the radio show “El Transistor” on Onda Cero.
Lopez has been part of the inventory of the ATP tour for a long time. In 1998 he played his first professional tournament in Barcelona – and lost 6-0, 6-2 against the Czech Jiri Novak at the age of 17. But it went uphill bit by bit with the sympathetic left-hander, who has won six individual titles so far. Half of them on grass, by the way.
It fits the picture that the son of a tennis coach and a nurse from Toledo celebrated his best Grand Slam results at Wimbledon. Lopez reached the quarter finals three times on Church Road (2005, 2008, 2011). Three years ago, the current world rankings-64 succeeded in doing so at the US Open in New York. In 2015, the passionate Real Madrid fan advanced to 12th place in the rankings.
And Lopez has already set the course for the time after his active career. Already in 2019 he is the tournament director of the Masters in Madrid. Tommy Haas says hello – he plays the part in Indian Wells.
Andrea Petkovic will certainly miss her buddy “Feli” as well, the two have been getting along splendidly for years. Last year, the former Davis Cup champion accompanied the athlete from Darmstadt via helicopter to a cliff jump on the sidelines of the tournament in Acapulco, Mexico.
Judy Murray never made a secret of her enthusiasm for Lopez. She called him “Deliciano” because of his looks. But her son Andy Murray never found his mother’s enthusiasm for his colleague so funny.
“It’s time she stopped this nonsense,” he once said and told the following story: “I trained with Lopez once – and my mother watched us. I shouted to him over the net: ‘Hey Feli, take a picture with my mom, she thinks you’re beautiful’. Then she turned bright red and suddenly didn’t want to take another picture.”