Feliciano Lopez to break ATP Masters appearence record in Indian Wells

The Indian Wells Masters will be the 139th ATP 1000 Masters Feliciano Lopez plays in and that will be a new record. Nobody before him ever played in 139 events and he is set to become the first. It's another milestone for the Spaniard who has had a long and storied career. Just earlier in the year, he became a member of an exclusive list of players that have won 500 career matches.

In honour of breaking the record that was held by Federer before he spoke with ATP expressing surprise at the record not being aware of it:

"Really? I honestly didn’t know. I knew that I’d played a lot of tournaments, but I had no idea I was about to break the record here at Indian Wells."

Asked about the fact that he and Federer are still kicking around at age 40, Lopez admitted it's not the normal saying:

"It’s definitely not normal for us to be playing at 40. Unfortunately, Roger has a knee injury. For my part, I’ve been lucky enough not to have anything serious and to continue competing. I think I can be very satisfied and happy about it, because I can still be here now."

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Lopez also spoke about which record holds the most meaning to win saying that the 500 wins are special:

"I think the 500 wins. Purely in terms of tennis, reaching 500 wins is something that very few people do. When I look at that list and see my name there, it makes me feel proud. The records in Grand Slams are a reward for my consistency, my passion for tennis, for not having been injured, for having taken care of myself... but in terms of the game of tennis, I value having won so many matches much more."

He finished up by explaining what keeps him and others going:

"It’s just really difficult to stop. When I talk to players who have retired they tell me to savour it because I’m going to miss it."