Feliciano López says goodbye to professional tennis after falling in the Mallorca tournament

Palm

08/30/2023 at 23:34

CEST


The 41-year-old tennis player from Toledo loses 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals against the German Yannick Hanfmann and closes a career spanning more than 25 seasons

Feliciano López lost this Thursday against the German Yannick Hanfman by 6-2 and 6-4, he said goodbye in the quarterfinals of the Mallorca tournament and ended his career as a professional tennis player after more than twenty-five seasons on the circuit, with seven individual titles and six doubles on the ATP .

The Toledo player could not 41 years extend their presence on the grass of the Balearic event. Currently ranked 634th in the world ranking, he chose the Mallorca tournament as the final stage of his career.

Accompanied by his family, his wife and his son in Palma, he has extended his stay in this competition day by day. He beat the Australian in the first round Max Purcell and later, in eighths to the also oceanic Jordan Thompson.

It did not give him to overcome Hanfmann with whom he had already lost in 2017, in the Gstaad tournament. The German, 48 in the world, a semifinalist in Houston this season and protagonist of the great surprise of the competition by eliminating the first favorite, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, took an hour and ten minutes to say goodbye to one of the most important tennis players in the world. Spanish tennis: five Davis Cup titles and with a style of play opposite to the rest of the ‘Navy‘.

erected in the fourth player in history with the most direct kicks With a total of 10,260, behind only American John Isner (14,260), Croatian Ivo Karlovic (13,728) and Swiss Roger Federer (11,478), he became the oldest quarterfinalist at an ATP tournament since the North American on Wednesday. Jimmy Connors, in Halle, in 1995, at the age of 42.

Feliciano had already assumed his dismissal this season. Long dedicated to organizational work, management, at the Masters 1000 in Madrid he was recently appointed director of the 2023 Davis Cup Finals.

His appearances on the track have been dropper this course. He reached the second round in Acapulco, his first tournament of the year, last February. He beat the American Christopher Eubanks and lost to his compatriot Frances Tiafoe. Later, he stagnated in the first rounds of the Murcia challenger, beaten by the Italian Matteo Arnaldi, of the Count of Godó, defeated by the Belgian david goffin and already on grass, in Stuttgart, eliminated by the Japanese Yosuke Watanuki and in the first section of the previous phase of Queen’s, knocked down by the French Arthur Rinderknech.

In Mallorca he has achieved another two victories. With three added in 2023 he ends his professional journey. Hang the racket Feliciano López who finished the match treated by the tournament physiotherapist with discomfort in the right thigh.

Yannick Hanfmann advances in Mallorca who will play the semifinals with the winner of the match between the French Adrian Mannarinofourth favorite, and Corentin Moutet. The other semifinal will be played by the South African Lloyd Harris who beat the russian pavel kotov (7-5 and 6-2) and the American Christopher Eubanks who beat the french Arthur Rinderknech by 7-6(5) and 7-6(4).

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