Incredible Feliciano Lopez Grand Slam records under threat

Feliciano Lopez lost in the first round of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston against World number 361 Gijs Brouwer casting doubt over his participation in the French Open in May and potentially spelling the end of not one but two all-time records

Feliciano Lopez played at the ATP 250 event in America hoping to secure enough ranking points to enable him to enter the Roland Garros main draw directly. However, with a 6-4, 6-2 straight sets loss to Holland’s Gijs Brouwer, it confirmed that the Spaniard will have to go through the qualifying rounds for the French Open in order to reach the main draw.

This puts Lopez’s Grand Slam records into jeopardy. If he is unable to make it to the main draw in Paris it will end a record of 79 Grand Slam main draw appearances in a row which stretches back to Roland Garros 2002. In addition, he also holds the record for the most consecutive appearances at the French Open with 21.

The 40 year old has held the record of consecutive Grand Slam main draw appearances since the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, when he made his 66th consecutive appearance surpassing the previous record of 65 held by Roger Federer.

Lopez isn’t the only Spanish veteran to miss out on the main draw at Roland Garros. Current World number 120 Fernando Verdasco needed a positive result at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech in order to climb into the top 100 and enter the main draw of the Paris major. However, the former Australian Open semi-finalist lost in the second round of qualifying to Russia’s Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-3.

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