Australian Open 2012 live stream

Feliciano Lopez does not have the singles resume of his fellow Spaniards Rafael Nadal or David Ferrer, but he has become a major thorn in the side of Amercian tennis. On Friday at Australian Open 2012, he took out the last U.S. man standing, John Isner, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1 in the third round.
 
In the past seven months, the left-handed serve-and-volleyer has taken down former world No.1 Andy Roddick of the U.S. at Wimbledon, top-ranked American Mardy Fish in Davis Cup, and now the 16th seed Isner, who after his spectacular five-set victory over David Nalbandian in the second round, was hoping to make a second-week push.
 
But it was not to be as the tricky Lopez was more composed and advantageous in the fifth set while Isner lost his way.
 
With Isner’s loss, it’s the first time since 1973 that no U.S. men have reached round of 16 at the Australian Open. And it gets worse from there -- in 1973, no U.S. men entered the Australian Open.

"It's very disappointing," Isner said. "That's not a good effort from the Americans this tournament.  I knew going in today I was the last one left and I wanted to keep on going, but just didn't happen. But it's very ugly, to be honest, to have no one in the round of 16.  We've got to try to rectify that next time the big tournaments roll around."
 
At the age of 30, 18th seed Lopez has experienced a late career surge in singles. He finished in the top 10 for the first time last year and now has advanced further than he ever has at the Australian Open.
 
“Overall the match was great I think from my side,” said Lopez, who nailed 55 winners to 30 unforced errors.  “I hit great shots. Sometimes I hit a little bit too much, too many double faults at one point, but overall I think I played great.  I played great points.  [To] get the break in the fifth set I hit great passing shot. So I'm happy with my performance.”
 
Contending against the 6-foot-9-inch Isner’s massive serve is never easy, but Lopez managed to take advantage of the times when Isner's first serve didn’t fall in, winning 56 percent of Isner’s second serve points. He broke him six times in the match and never seemed to lose focus, even when Isner staged a revival in the fourth set tie-break.
 
“You know that you have to deal with it," said Lopez, who will face Nadal in the fourth round. "You just try to be focused when you serve, because one break against John is probably one set. This is what I have to do. I’m so lucky because I have also a good serve. So I think to play Johnny the way I played today I have to be happy, because this is [a] really difficult player to play.”
 
Lopez was not only effective from the net, where he won 35 of 49 points, but he also dominated baseline play, taking 66 of the 123 points played from there. He mixed deft slice backhands with heavy hooking forehands. And when it came to crunch time, he closed quickly while Isner lost control. The match was played on Lopez’s terms and Isner is not a good enough scrambler to be able to pull out big matches unless he’s in charge.
 
“No matter who I'm playing, I think with how I can play it should be on my terms, and it just wasn't the case today,” Isner said.  "[The fifth set letdown] was more mental than anything. Just like the whole match, I wasn't really that sharp, I just didn't really have it out there today. But credit to him.  I thought he played pretty well.”