Again Nadal edged ahead with an early break in the fifth, but it was Verdasco who strung together six games in a row, including two breaks of serve, to seal victory in four hours and 41 minutes.
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It was sweet revenge for Verdasco who lost at the end of a five-hour, 14-minute marathon against Nadal in the semi-finals of the tournament in 2009 on the very same court – Rod Laver Arena.
Nadal, who won that year, had always reached the second round in his previous 10 appearances here. The 14-time major winner’s only other first-round exit in a Grand Slam was at Wimbledon in 2013 when he lost in straight sets to No. 135-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium.
“I played unbelievable in the fifth set from after the break he made against me”, Verdasco said.
“Sometimes if you do what I did today, you can put all the balls outside and it’s like “this guy’s insane”.
“I just think that it should be tennis that does a better job of explaining”, Murray said. “I will just try to keep it up”.
Murray, a four-time finalist at the Australian Open, will now face Australian Sam Grot in the second round. “I played many days without pain”.
No. 5 Rafael Nadal was playing fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in a rematch of the epic semifinal here in 2009.
“I think it would be silly to look at Venus’ age and somehow consider that as a reflection of her level”, said the 24-year-old.
Spanish player Rafael Nadal serves during a practice session, prior the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Australia, 16 January 2016.
Andy Murray cruised into the second round after defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-1 6-2 6-3. Many people always ask me about that match.
Match-fixing speculation also continued to reverberate on day two as more players revealed approaches after a BBC and BuzzFeed report said corruption was widespread in the sport. Meanwhile, eighth-seed David Ferrer also advanced to the next round after outclassing German Peter Gojowczyk 6-4, 6-4,6-2 in the first round.
Halep added: “I think it wasn’t my good day, but I give her [Zhang] a lot of credit because I think she played really well”.
Afterwards the world number two, who is awaiting the imminent birth of his first child and has pledged to race home if his wife goes into labour, immediately checked his phone for news.
On the men’s side, No. 13 Milos Raonic followed up his win over Roger Federer in the final of the Brisbane International tune-up event with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Lucas Pouille, No. 18 Feliciano Lopez beat Daniel Evans 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 and No. 32 Joao Sousa beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
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No. 3 Garbine Muguruza needed exactly an hour to beat Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-0, 6-4.
