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Verdasco knocks Nadal out of Australian Open

Leading 2-0 in the final set, Nadal was in the box seat to prevail in a highly physical encounter, but world number 45 Verdasco dragged himself off the canvas to win six straight games with a barrage of forehand winners.

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Tuesday’s sequel on Rod Laver Arena mirrored their clash on the same court seven years ago when Nadal prevailed in five hours 14 minutes, the longest Australian Open match at the time, before going on to beat Roger Federer in the final.

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.

It was Nadal’s earliest Australian Open exit in 11 appearances, and is only the second opening round loss in his Grand Slam career.

“Good that I won easy, would have been better if I had a few more balls to hit in the match”, said the Brit, who is also being greeted by fellow players, fans and even the ball boys and girls well in advance as wife Kim is expecting. He shed light on the fact that many of his opponents were playing “crazy” go-for-broke tennis and trying to hit winners from any position.

Verdasco will face Israel’s Dudi Sela in the second round after he defeated Benjamin Becker in four sets. “A win against Rafa is an unbelievable feeling”.

“This year was a completely different story – I had been playing and practising great and working so much, so it’s tough when you work so much and you arrive at a very important event and you go out so early”. “If you decide everything in one set, the opponent is ready to hit all the balls at 100 percent, then you are in trouble”, Nadal added.

Verdasco avoided going 3-0 down in the decider by saving a break point, before going on to win 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 3-6 7-6 (4-7) 6-2. “He played so aggressive, and the serve was huge for him today”.

So I was very happy with the way that I finished the match. The reports alleged 16 players, all ranked in the top 50 at some stage and half of them playing at the Australian Open, had repeatedly raised suspicion due to their results and had been flagged with tennis authorities, but had not been sanctioned.

Nadal’s only other first-round defeat in a grand slam was against Belgium’s Steve Darcis at Wimbledon in 2013. I would take out the betting.

“I closed my eyes and everything went in”.

In the women’s tournament, eighth seed Venus Williams was ousted by 24-year old Johanna Konta, who now holds the 47th place in the world rankings.

In the women’s draw second seed Halep suffered a shock defeat.

“The match is a tough lose for me obviously”.

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Murray was glad to get off the court in straight sets but said the match had been more hard than the scoreline suggested.

Fernando Verdasco upset Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open before having to deny match-fixing claims