Rafael Nadal admits he faces a “very tough” opponent in Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the first round of the 2016 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. The difference in the match was obvious: Nadal hit 37 winners. However, Verdasco came back brilliantly in the fourth set to force a tie-breaker with some astounding backhands and then went on to win it.
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The set went to a tiebreaker, and Verdasco won it to set up a deciding fifth set.
Verdasco was an underdog on the draw sheet and in their overall head-to-head (Nadal held a 14-2 advantage), but he’d taken Nadal to five sets in their only previous Australian Open meeting, too, when they faced off in the 2009 semi-finals here. Nadal stayed in the match so long partially because of Verdasco’s 91 unforced errors.
It boiled down to the last set where Verdasco sped up to a 4-2 lead. Aside from Nadal’s loss against Verdasco in Miami, he was also defeated by Feliciano Lopez, Michael Berrer, and Martin Klizan – all three of whom are left-handed players. Both have huge forehands but in the past, Nadal has been just too solid.
A raging ball of fire, Verdasco roared on to complete one of his finest victories and land a hammer blow on Nadal’s early season confidence.
“I will just try to keep it up and keep playing like this in the next round”.
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Nadal, though, is not the powerhouse presence he once was, having crashed out in the second round at Wimbledon a year ago and US Open third round.
