Feliciano Lopez is a back-to-back champion…

The 32-year-old Spanish tennis player beat top seed Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5 on Saturday to complete a successful title defense in the Aegon International final.

It’s the first time the third-seeded Lopez has retained an ATP title, and the first time he has beaten Gasquet in their six career meetings.

Lopez, who held championship point against Grigor Dimitrov last week at Queen’s Club but couldn’t seal the deal,  is the first player to reach back-to-back grass-court finals before Wimbledon since 2001, when Lleyton Hewitt won at Queen’s and s-Hertogenbosch, and Thomas Johansson won Halle and Nottingham.

There was little to separate him and Gasquet, with two breaks giving the Spanish left-hander the opening set, and Gasquet, the 2005 and 2006 champion, winning the tiebreaker in the second.

In the third set, games went with serve until Lopez broke to lead 6-5 and then served out the match for the fourth title of his career.