By Chris Oddo | Monday, January 18, 2016
Fernando Verdasco tore the cover off the ball and sent Rafael Nadal packing out of the Australian Open on Day 2.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
It took a while, and it wasn’t served cold, but Fernando Verdasco took his revenge on Rafael Nadal on Tuesday in Melbourne, avenging the heartbreaking loss he suffered in the 2009 Australian Open semifinals with a 7-6(6) 4-6 3-6 7-6(4) 6-2 victory that took four hours and 41 minutes.
Video: Nadal Wins Second Set in Style
“I just started hitting winners,” said Verdasco, who totaled 90 in the match, 41 of which came from his lethal forehand side. “I don’t know how. I was closing the eyes and everything was coming in. I just kept doing it and it went well.”
Verdasco snatched the first set in a tiebreaker, but dropped the next two to Nadal before really hitting his stride midway through the fourth.
Though he failed to serve out the set with a 5-4 lead in set four, Verdasco rallied back from 0-30 down at 5-6 by winning four straight points, then played a courageous tiebreaker to force a decider.
“The fourth set, I think I started serving better than the second and third,” said Verdasco. “And he also started playing a little less deep and strong, so I started coming inside the court, tried to be aggressive and it went well.”
Verdasco hit 44 winners in the final two sets against only 14 for Nadal, and when he fell behind by a break in the final set, he ratcheted it up another notch.
The world No. 45 won the final six games on the trot and finished the match with a massive crosscourt forehand winner that a dejected Nadal could only watch as it sailed by and ended his hopes for a late comeback.
Nadal has now failed to reach the second week of his last three majors, compiling a record of 3-3. He has lost to players ranked 92, 24 and 40 spots below him in those three successive majors.
Verdasco, who improved to 92-50 lifetime at the majors, has never been to another Grand Slam semifinal since losing that epic battle to Nadal in 2009. He hopes that some of the magic from today’s match will stay with him as he takes on Israel’s Dudi Sela in the second round.
“To win against Rafa here in five sets coming from two sets to one down is an unbelievable feeling,” he said. “I will just try to keep it up and keep playing like this in the second round.”