By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Parting can be painful, but Felciano Lopez closes the curtain on his Wimbledon career with pride.
The 40-year-old Lopez bid farewell to Wimbledon with pride following his straight-sets loss to 21st-seeded Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
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It was Lopez's 19th—and likely last—Wimbledon appearance, the Spaniard said afterward.
"Yeah, this one will be probably my last Wimbledon," Lopez said afterward. "I'm ranked 200 in the world, I think, or so. I didn't see the rankings in the last week, but yeah, seems to be difficult for me to play another one unless I try to, you know, get back in the top 100, which is very difficult.
"This is not the plan for me right now to start playing, you know, challengers and singles tournaments around the world to get my ranking back. So yeah, this is probably going to be the last one."
Iron Man Lopez's mind-blowing 20-year Grand Slam streak ended where it all began in Paris last month. Lopez fell to Gian Marco Moroni 6-1, 7-6(4) in Roland Garros qualifying snapping his all-time record streak of 79 straight Grand Slam appearances. That streak began at the 2002 Roland Garros.
While Lopez said farewell to Wimbledon, it isn't a grass-court good-bye. The Spanish left-hander said he wil probably try to play the Newport grass at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Open next month.
"I'm planning to play second half of the year. I don't know where, and I don't know if I'm gonna play singles and doubles or only doubles," Lopez said. "The plan is to play some doubles, that's for sure, in the US Open and probably the lead-in tournaments also.
"But I haven't decided yet, so yeah, I'm probably playing Newport for the first time in my career after Wimbledon, so I'm excited about that. Never been there. So I have been told it's a nice place with a lot of history. The Hall of Fame is there. So that's another reason for me to go there and play, and then I will see.
"I will place Los Cabos most likely, and then probably, you know, two of the lead-in tournaments before the US Open. Doubles mostly."
When his playing days are done, Lopez said he will miss tennis "a lot" but is looking forward to spending more time with his family and continuing his role as Mutua Madrid Open tournament director. Lopez wed long-time fiancée Sandra Gago on his 38th birthday September 20th, 2019.
"I will miss tennis, of course. Tennis has been everything in my life since I was a kid, so of course I will miss tennis, especially the competition," Lopez said. "This is the part I think I'm gonna miss a lot. A lot of my colleagues that they are gone already, so far they say that, you know, the competition is the thing that they are missing.
"But, you know, this is life. I have a great family, and, you know, I will have plenty of things to do, no? So I'm not afraid of, you know, of this, you know, situation, honestly, because I have to be proud of everything that I have done. I think I never expected honestly to be here at 40 years old competing and playing another Wimbledon, so I consider myself very fortunate. The day I stop, I will be happy, and luckily I will still have a lot of things to pay attention to."
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