Fernando Verdasco rolled back the clock on Friday at Roland Garros, when he saved four set points in the first set en route to victory in the 350th clay-court match of his career (218-132).
Verdasco, the No. 30 seed from Spain, booked his place in the fourth round for the seventh time, equaling his best performance at the Grand Slam championship, with a 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4 victory over fourth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in two hours and 22 minutes.
"In the first set, I had to save a few set points in one game, and I was just trying to be in that moment point-by-point and trying to just do the best I could," said Verdasco. "I was able to win that game, hitting a second serve ace on the line, where I took a little bit of risk, one one of the set points.
Then, in the tie-break, I think that I played a little bit better than him... It was very important I think for the rest of the match, because in the second set you could see that I was playing more loose and with deeper shots. He started to make a few more mistakes than in the first set.
"At two sets to love, even though I was up a break twice, he stayed in the match and he kept fighting. I needed to push a little bit harder to close out the match. But I did it, and I'm very happy that I was able to beat a player like Grigor for a place in the fourth round in Paris again."
Verdasco will now prepare to face 2016 champion and No. 20 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who beat Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 13 seed, in four sets later in the day.
[ALSO LIKE]The 34-year-old Verdasco has a 3-1 record against the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings this year (27-96 lifetime), including victories over then No. 6-ranked Dominic Thiem at the Rio Open presented by Claro, where he was beaten in the final, and also against No. 4-ranked Dimitrov at the BNP Paribas Open. He is now 16-12 in 2018.
Verdasco saved two set points when serving at 5-6, then recovered from a 1/3 deficit in the tie-break to clinch the 63-minute opener and put Dimitrov on the back foot. Verdasco saved two break points in the third game of the second set. Then from 2-2, he won 16 of the next 20 points for a two-sets lead.
In a run of seven straight games to a 3-0 lead in the third set, Verdasco capitalised on poor serving from Dimitrov, the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champions, who rallied with two breaks, but once again made an early exit on his eighth appearance in south-west Paris.
"It's never an easy match," said Dimitrov. "I lost to him earlier this year, I think, in a tight match. Today was pretty much the same. What can I say? It's a shame, because physically I felt good, but I think, obviously, I lost my nerve early on in the first set after I lost that set. So it was kind of tough to recover from that.
"But even so, I still had some time to kind of get into a rhythm, get into a different match, and it just didn't happen. You know, simple as that."
Dimitrov, now 18-11 on the year, has yet to beat a Top 50 player at the clay-court Grand Slam championship (0-7 record).
Did You Know?
Fernando Verdasco has a 10-6 record on clay courts this year, and has won five of his seven ATP World Tour titles on the surface.