Spaniard Fernando Verdasco pulled off another first-round upset at a Grand Slam, knocking out ninth seed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a match that resumed Tuesday afternoon after being suspended on Monday because of darkness. The 33-year-old Spaniard, who also beat fifth seed Rafael Nadal to start the 2016 Australian Open, broke the #NextGenATP German eight times to advance in two hours and 52 minutes. The contest was suspended after two sets on Monday, and Zverev looked the stronger of the two when the match resumed, gaining an early break to lead 3-1 in the third set. But the left-handed Verdasco won five of the set's final six games to lead two sets to one. He dominated the...
Fifth seed Fernando Verdasco remained perfect on clay against Kevin Anderson on Wednesday, edging the South African 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to move into the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston. After taking the first set tie-break, the Spaniard was broken to start the second set but broke right back to even the set at 1-1. Verdasco would win the final two points of the second set tie-break to finish the one-hour and 57-minute contest. The 33-year-old left-hander now leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 3-2, having won their previous match-ups on clay in 2011 (Estoril) and 2012 (Barcelona). Anderson, though, had won their past two contests, at the 2013 Australian Open and...
Fernando Verdasco once deemed it the best match he had played. Five hours and 14 minutes of no-holds-barred shot-making - two Spaniards trading blows under lights on a heaving Rod Laver Arena, a shootout he would ultimately fall short in against his more decorated countryman, Rafael Nadal, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-7(1), 6-4. On Tuesday, the pair will resume their rivalry in the round of 32 at the BNP Paribas Open. The fifth-seeded Nadal has lost three of his past five matches against the No. 29 seed but still leads their overall FedEx ATP Head2Head series 15-3. The five-hour-plus marathon match between the two southpaws came in the semi-finals of the Australian Open eight years ago and at the time was...
Fernando Verdasco talks about his big semi-final win against Robin Haase at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
