Often as fans, we see what we expect to see. Such was the case with Fernando Verdasco, Spain's second or third best player for a couple of years who graced the lower end of the Top 10 for a calendar year in 2010 and 2011.

After peaking in worldwide exposure with a epic 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 7-6(9) loss to Rafael Nadal at the Cincinnati Masters in late 2011, Verdasco started to fade as a singles player. He fell out of the Top 20 in September 2011, tumbled to 30th in March 2013, and was briefly out of the Top 50 this year before rallying back to No. 30 for the year's end.

Having just turned 30 two days ago, the slide made sense. Verdasco was an often good, but never truly great player who filled a niche in the back half of the Top 10 but never truly threatened the Nadals, Djokovics and Federers of the world.

Unknown to those of us who so solely focus on singles, Verdasco's singles slide had more to do with his newfound passion for doubles. Having seen the limitations of his singles game, he switched to a doubles intensive schedule in 2012.

After going 2-16 in doubles competition in 2011, he went 26-10 in 2012 with four titles earned alongside 30-something Spaniard David Marrero, a force in doubles who has only played nine singles matches in his ATP career. The four titles in 2012 were all on clay, not surprisingly the favorite surface of two Spaniards.

In 2013, they played an even more robust schedule and put together a 39-20 record with two titles, none bigger than the year-end ATP Doubles Championship which they won by defeating all day, every day favorites Bob and Mike Bryan 7-5, 6-7(3), 10-7 in the final.

Between his model good looks and his playboy-ish flair - posing naked for charity, dating the likes of Ana Ivanovic and now a lingerie model named Jariah Mariano - Verdasco has always seemed like a bit of a pretty boy on tour. However, he showed just how much maturity he possesses and how much the win means to him when he spoke at the ATP's official post-match press conference.

"For me in my experience, I think that now that I'm almost 30, I'm going to make 30 next Friday, you know, you enjoy and you really know how difficult is to win one tournament like this, even in singles or doubles," Verdasco said.