ATP Rome Quarters: Feliciano Lopez Looks to Join the Party
- By Nila A on April 30, 2010 18:32 GMT
Three Spaniards are through to the Rome Masters semis – Rafael Nadal, Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer. Feliciano Lopez will aim to round out the group to make it a Spanish quartet by day’s end.
Standing in his way of a spot in the semis is Ernests Gulbis who dumped Roger Federer in the second round.
Gulbis is an uber-talented player, and based on his raw talent alone should be ranked in the top 20 at the very least. But he isn’t ranked amongst the upper itinerants in the game. He is the world No. 40 (at least this week he is so; next week, he will probably climb the ranks based on his results in Rome).
Problem with Gulbis is that he has been a chronic underachiever, and as such, a bit of a disappointment. All that talent and nothing to show for it in the way of results – the only real measure of a player. Of course, optimists amongst you believe this is a turning point in his budding career. Certainly, it might be but forgive me for not buying what he is selling just yet.
Feliciano Lopez has a slight ranking edge over Gulbis at No. 35 and he has a 1-0 edge over Gulbis having beaten him in Stockholm last year. This makes him an attractive option in the markets.
Feliciano Lopez topped Benjamin Becker and Marin Cilic in the first two rounds and received a bye into the quarters when Ljubicic withdrew from their third round clash with an injury. This means Lopez is the fresher player.
Lopez will not have the weight of expectation riding him in this match, as Gulbis will have. In beating, Federer expectation is raised and with expectation, there is pressure, the best test of a player’s mettle.
Gulbis was anything but convincing in beating Federer, he needed over seven match points just to close out Federer. In fact, Federer did some of the work for him by imploding in the third set.
The representative match was his topsy-turvy performance against No.152 Volandri in the third round. He needed three sets to take out the upstart Italian. In fact, the Italian had him on the ropes for the better part of the third set. Is that an authoritative performance, oozing confidence? Probably not.
