Feliciano Lopez takes on France's Guillaume Rufin for a place in the ATP Montpellier quarter-finals.
Lopez is up to a career high of 15 after his run to the fourth round of the Australian Open and a good month for the Spaniard could see him come close to cracking the world's top ten. It's a great time of the season for the hard serving left-hander who relishes playing indoors.
He smashed down 19 aces on the way to a 6-4, 7-6(7) first round win over Igor Kunitsyn in Montpellier on Tuesday, dropping just four points on his first serve although he had to survive a set point in the second set tiebreak.
Rufin reached a best ranking of six in the world during his junior career and he's made a reasonable rise through the rankings on the men's circuit, shooting up to a career best ranking of 139 two years ago. However like many players he's got a little stuck at challenger level and his ranking has dropped back down outside the world's top 200.
He didn't make it through qualifying for the Australian Open although he's made the most of his wildcard this week, defeating Canada's Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 7-6(6) in the first round.
Prediction: Lopez in two.
