Big serving leftie Feliciano Lopez plays Igor Kunitsyn in the first round of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.
Lopez recently reached a new career high, cracking the top 20 for the first time and he celebrated the achievement with a run to the fourth round of the Australian Open, falling to eventual finalist Rafael Nadal.
The Spaniard could be a serious threat to the bigger names this week. He's landed himself a fairly nice section of the draw, seeded to face out of form second seed Gilles Simon in the quarters, a very winnable match.
Lopez certainly has the pedigree to go all the way this week. He made the semis of the Shanghai Masters in October, defeating Tomas Berdych and Janko Tipsarevic.
The first couple of rounds are pretty reasonable for him. He starts against the powerfully built but limited Russian Igor Kunitsyn. Kunitsyn is currently ranked 79 in the world and has lost his past five matches. He didn't make a single ATP quarter-final throughout 2011, keeping his place in the top 100 mainly on the back of his successes on the challenger tour.
Prediction: Lopez in two.
