#juanki really made both the junior singles and doubles final and lost them both. rip.

[alacants]

cannot believe that when i wrote this post i did not know that juanki and feli made the 1998 junior french open final as DOUBLES PARTNERS?????? they made a couple futures finals that year too, both of which they lost, and then just months later juanki was on tour so i guess that's why that partnership died out but also oh my god.......

First of all - thanks for the veeeery informative posts about Ferru, Ferrero, Ferrero/Nadal! I was wondering if there's anything interesting about Juan Carlos and Feliciano?

anon what a WONDERFUL ask. this made my day.

tho i’m afraid the answer is not as it exciting it could be because they're friendly! normal friendly! neither passive-aggressive nor more homoerotic than average! which is notable mostly/only because feli is the original rafa stan, president and acting chair of the rafa nadal supporters’ association.

but one of the most endearing things about feli lopez is that despite having THE messiest personal life of the armada bar none (and i'm including his bestie alongside his various exes), put him in a spanish tennis enclosure and everyone is his friend. you'd expect this from someone low-key like ferru, but from the guy who’s been torn to shreds in the press multiple times by multiple exes, who used to regularly log on in the middle of the night to beef with randos and tweet through his breakup feelings… it’s a little more surprising!

feli also loves the davis cup. he’s the only player to have been on the roster for all four of spain's most recent titles, 2008-2009-2011-2019. (he did NOT play 2012, the only final in that era they lost. coincidence????) so after juanki’s big redemptive moment he was sooooo happy—he’s the one carrying juanki around on his shoulders afterwards. you could definitely do something with that if you were so inclined.

(WHY WON'T THESE STAY SIDE BY SIDE THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!!)

in fact feli's davis cup debut was the 2003 final vs australia. …which spain lost, but it was the last flicker of juanki's undisputed reign atop the spanish firmament. year 1 B.R. (Before Rafa). this possibly is part of why feli was a juanki believer—in 2005 his answer to whether juanki could recapture his old form was "yes of COURSE he'll get back in the top 10. probably not no. 1 because of federer but definitely top 10." (<- feli also loves roger.) and we know that juanki likes people who believe in him.

feli was also a regular in the valencia open. he was at juanki’s retirement ceremony! where he spent half his time giggling with rafa and the other half getting visibly emotional, because much like juanki he cries at the drop of a hat. lol.

i will take this opportunity to share an anecdote from that occasion that didn’t fit anywhere else, even though it’s such a great piece of nadarrero-adjacent lore. first, after the ceremony juanki’s friends presented him with a RED MOTOR SCOOTER lmfao of course they did, and although most of those photos have been tragically lost to time, feli's survive because feli fans were very, very dedicated archivists. (the other ones still around are on alex corretja’s facebook. hahaha.) then everyone except ferru, who had to play a match the next morning, went to the after-after party and rafa and feli danced to call me maybe and rafa got so smashed that pico monaco had to drag him out at 5 a.m. and only then was juanki the last to leave.

sorry that was a tangent but hopefully an entertaining one. last but not least here is juanki's message to feli on the occasion of his retirement!

those are the facts. mostly facts. now if you want to know what kind of fascinating fictional possibilities i have conjured… well i can talk about those too, starting with how feli and ferru were especially close in 2012, because they played olympic doubles together and came thisclose to bronze and didn't get it and i am OVER it, it’s FINE—what was i talking about? juanki and feli. right. where i was going with the above is that obviously the angle i find funniest is what does noted situationship connoisseur feli lopez think about (handwave) All That.* like he was right there the whole time. but needless to say this is far from the only option. the romance, or at least the lust, of the davis cup is real. the mutual madridismo is real. the rafa nadal of it all is real. and if your ask was thinking antagonism rather than attraction, then i mean. GO WILD.

*for some extra texture you should know that when ferru retired at the madrid open, which is directed by feli, they also gave him a painting except it was an EXTREMELY NORMAL ONE, just, like, a nice picture of ferru on the court, from which i can only conclude that juan carlos ferrero looked at this and thought, you fucking amateurs. you know what i'm going to do—