Feliciano Lopez gives Spain the 1-0 lead over Russia with win over Rublev

Feliciano Lopez held a tennis master class agianst Andrey Rublev in Madrid defeating the Russian 2-1 to give Spain the lead against Russia.

A very important match was played between Lopez and Rublev with the winner of this Davis Cup tie being declared the winner of the group. It's important because of the seeding of the quarterfinals as the winner should in theory face an easier opponent in the quarterfinals. Feliciano Lopez had the mammoth challenge of facing Andrey Rublev in the first set.

The first set went largely as expected as Rublev asserted himself as the dominant player attacking with his forehand. He also served rather well and all of that was more than enough for Rublev to easily win the first set with 6-2. The 2nd set started with both players finding a rhythm and Lopez was playing much better. His serve started working and his volleying was on point as well.

The Spanish Team Captain stressed to Lopez the importance of being patient believing the Spaniard will receive a chance and truly he did. A bad game by Rublev gave him a break point and he used it to take a 4-2 lead. The Madrid crowd was into the match and Lopez was pumped up. He continued playing well in the set eventually winning it with 6-3.

The 3rd set went quite similarly to the 2nd one as Lopez once again was presented with a lone break and once again he converted it. He was 2/2 at that time on break points while Rublev was 2/11. The Russian missed multiple in the previous game and that proved quite costly. Lopez eventually won the set with 6-4 to give Spain the first point.