Feliciano Lopez was recognised for his standout career on Monday in Turin.
The Spaniard retired in June, then aged 41, after losing in the quarter-finals of the Mallorca Championships. The lefty won two matches at the ATP 250 to close out his career on a high.
ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Player Representative Pablo Andujar and former World No. 5 Rainer Schuettler were among those who paid tribute to Lopez.
“I feel very proud of my career. I think I have achieved much more than I expected when I started playing professionally,” Lopez told ATPTour.com. “It's been great being here again, seeing everyone and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been working with me for the past 20 years helping me in every single way. And also, it's been very nice that they give us a last goodbye with this presentation that I had a few hours ago with Andrea, with [ATP Senior Vice President of Player Relations] Fernando [Sanchez]. It's been great.”
Lopez entertained fans around the world for more than two decades with his aggressive, net-crashing game. The lefty became known for his booming serve and fearless game. He won 766 tour-level matches between singles and doubles, 13 combined titles and more than $18 million in prize money.
The Spaniard is one of only five players who have hit 10,000 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats. Lopez is fourth on record with 10,261. He played in a record 79 consecutive Grand Slam men’s singles main draws beginning with 2002 Roland Garros.
In 2019, Lopez became tournament director of the Mutua Madrid Open, an ATP Masters 1000 event.
“I feel also very lucky that I will continue seeing almost everyone because I'm going to be working for Madrid,” Lopez said. “Hopefully we're going to see each other again for the next years. Overall I've been very happy, and I think I met really nice people along the way, which is great. So it's not goodbye, it's see you later because I'm going to be seeing almost everyone the next five to 10 years. It's been great so far, I'm very grateful for that.”
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