By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, August 20, 2015

Feliciano Lopez shed his singles status last month and sent his practice partner out of Cincinnati tonight.

Lopez thumped his 14th ace on match point bouncing buddy Rafael Nadal out of the Western & Southern Open, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (3), with a bold display of attacking tennis.

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It was Lopez's second straight win over Nadal, following his straight-sets win in Shanghai last fall, and propelled him into his first Cincinnati quarterfinal. Nadal said he was satisfied with his level of play, conceding Lopez simply outplayed him.

"I played well today. I didn't play a bad match at all," Nadal said. "I think Feli played great...I  was there during the whole match with the right intensity, with the right attitude, doing the things that I have to do, trying to be more aggressive, trying to go to the net more often.That's what I did. But today I played against an opponent that he played a fantastic match, I think. He played the best match ever against me, without a doubt."

One month shy of celebrating his 34th birthday, Lopez is playing some of the best tennis of his career. He hit 43 winners compared to 27 for the nine-time French Open champion. Lopez will play second-seeded Roger Federer for a semifinal spot. Federer was nearly untouchable on serve, drilling 15th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, 6-1, 6-1, as he continues his quest for a seventh Cincinnati title.

Tonight's all-Spanish match was a spirited and often rousing encounter with both men attacking with their forehands and creating some crackling running rallies.

Ultimately, Lopez's commitment to moving forward—and his sweeping lefty serve—made the difference in the tie break.

"I think he's playing better, getting better and better. He played good today," Lopez said of Nadal. "I mean, I was playing really my best today. Doesn't matter the way he played because I was playing so good today. It was difficult to beat me today because I played my best, I will say."

There was no extensive celebration from Lopez, who knows his friend is struggling to regain confidence.

"And it's tough. It's tough to see him when you see someone that he's, you know, suffering and struggling," Lopez said. "It's tough. But I think right now, he's okay and he's gonna reach the top again. I'm sure, because he's playing better and better. As soon as he wins some matches in a row, he will be there for sure."

Nadal, who had triple break point four different times on his opponent's serve early in the match, couldn't read and react to the Lopez serve fast enough during the decisive tie break.

It was a completely different scenario at the start. Nadal lifted a running forehand pass down the line to break for 3-1 only to gift back the break—and voice his displeasure with chair umpire Fergus Murphy after accruing a time violation warning down break point.

Lopez stared down a triple-break point hole for the second time in his last three service games and Nadal drew the error, securing his second break for a 5-3 advantage.

A swirling backhand drop shot winner from Lopez started the ninth game. Hitting over his backhand more frequently, Lopez unloaded on a forehand winner crosscourt then used his slice to coax the for break point. Nadal launched a flat first serve that Hawk-Eye showed missed the line by millimeters. He bounced a double fault off the tape, dropping serve for the second time—the fourth break of the set.

The world No. 23 saved three set points and slid an ace down the middle for 5-all. Though he dodged that dilemma, Lopez unraveled with his second double fault facing three more set points in the 12th game. On his sixth set point, Nadal ran around his backhand and knifed a forehand down the line snatching the opening set in 52 minutes.

The former Davis Cup teammates practice together and know each other's games and personalities thoroughly.

When Lopez got the ball waist-high in his strike zone, he took his cracks at the forehand. Slashing a forehand return winner down the line for break point, Lopez broke for 2-1 when Nadal scooped a running forehand long. Nadal won 13 of 16 points on his first serve, while Lopez permitted just four points on his first serve making the break stand and cracking six aces in a controlled second set.

The quandary Nadal faces is he's a rhythm player who thrives on repetition, but can't gain it when he's going down early in tournaments. Both Lopez and Kei Nishikori, who swept the former No. 1 in the Montreal quarterfinals last week, attacked Nadal's second serve with flat returns down the line at times.

"I am working hard. I don't know if I am gonna eliminate that (lapses) for the US Open or not," Nadal said. "The US Open is not everything. It is a very important tournament, very important tournament that means a lot to me. It is a tournament that I completed the Grand Slam and I won twice.

"I'm going to try to be there and have the right energy to play a good tournament. But for me, the real thing today is I know where I am. I know who I am and I know what's my real level when I am playing well. And in what I have to be focused in to recover that level. That level is back, I gonna think about winning tournaments."

Neither man managed a break point in the decisive set which escalated into a tie break. In all three of Lopez's prior wins over Nadal—2003 Basel, 2010 Queen's Club and 2014 Shanghai—he had won one tie break set.

Lopez, who married long-time girlfriend Alba Carrillo on July 17th, curled his 12th ace into the corner, holding at 30 to force the tie break. Then he proceeded to play proactive tennis from the first point.

Dipping the ball low at his opponent's feet, Lopez slid into a backhand pass up the line to open the breaker with a mini-break. Whipping his 13th ace out wide, he extended the lead to 5-2. Trying to take the net away, Nadal closed the front court, but Lopez poked a backhand down the line and soared high for a smash earning for three match points.

He needed only one. An initial ace was nullified as a let. Lopez shrugged it off, and cranked another ace ending a quality two hour, 25-minute performance scrawling a message—"Marriage works!" —on the court-side camera lens.

Afterward, Lopez, who has been on the losing side nine times against Nadal, spoke of the mixed emotions the game evokes when there's a connection on both sides of the net.

"It's sad now when you play against a friend," Lopez said. "It's difficult to fight someone you really know and to beat him, it's even worse, especially now when he's not playing his best. I wish I could have beat him three years ago when he was No.1 in the world. But tennis is like this. I mean, for me it was a great win, so I have to be happy."