"Very difficult unless you have a mega star like Alcaraz or Djokovic" - Feliciano Lopez on Stan Wawrinka's complaint about poor Davis Cup crowd

Feliciano Lopez recently spoke to a Spanish daily about the lack of crowds at the Davis Cup, claiming that only Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz have the star power to bring a horde of fans to the annual team event.

The Spaniard was responding to Stan Wawrinka's complaints about this week's Davis Cup Finals group stage ties. Wawrinka had poked fun at the ITF for the lack of spectators during the tie between his home country and France in Manchester. He also accused them of paying people to attend matches and support various nations later.

Feliciano Lopez, for his part, believes casual tennis fans wouldn't always turn up for the Davis Cup in neutral locations.

"This topic is very complicated," he said as per Punto de Break. "To begin with, on a Wednesday at 3:00 p.m., in any city in the world where the game is played, it is very difficult to fill a stadium... unless you have a megastar like Alcaraz or Djokovic."

The 41-year-old also questioned Stan Wawrinka's decision to share pictures of empty seats from the group stage tie between Switzerland and France, when over 12,000 local fans attended the match between Great Britain and Switzerland in Manchester a few days later.

"The other trick is for the local country [Great Britain] to play, as happened the other day in Manchester with 12,000 people. Nobody uploaded that photo, they only put the photo of when no one is there," Lopez added.

Novak Djokovic helps Serbia qualify for the 2023 Davis Cup Finals knockout stage

Action from the Serbia vs Spain tie at the 2023 Davis Cup Finals

Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, was in scintillating form during his first singles match this week, getting the better of Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets. The Serb's win ensured that his country completed a 2-0 win over the Spanish Armada, as Laslo Djere had already given them their first victory of the tie.

More importantly, Serbia was able to qualify from Group C for the knockout stage of the Davis Cup Finals, since they had already won their first group-stage tie against South Korea in Djokovic's absence.

Serbia subsequently suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Czech Republic. However, Djokovic didn't feature in the singles matches and only turned up for the doubles match, which was a dead rubber.

He and Nikola Cacic were unsuccessful against the team of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek, narrowly losing 5-7, 7-6(7), [3-10].