When Rafael Nadal clinched his 14th Grand Slam title, the 2014 French Open, the Spaniard was well on his way to surpassing Roger Federer’s record tally of 17 major championships.
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Verdasco won the thriller 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 in four hours, 41 minutes to hand 14-time Grand Slam victor Nadal only his second ever first-round defeat at a major tournament.
Verdasco went for everything on his ground strokes, ripping 90 winners against only 37 for Nadal as he worked to the extremes to unsettle his former top-ranked rival. The fluency in his play wasn’t visible and he looked dejected for not being able to maintain the same intensity throughout the game. Nadal says losing was tough but he did everything he could. “There is no more thing to do than keep practising hard, keep practising the same way that I was doing the last four, five months”.
“I felt myself that I was practicing great, playing very good”.
“I don’t know how many times I have watched that match, maybe 10 times, Verdasco said”. The worst part of, watching a young player become one of the best is, watching them falter towards the end of their prime. In my opinion was not the case of today.
After a disappointing 2015 in which he failed to reach a single major semi-final, Nadal was hoping to instigate a revival in Melbourne but instead endured another agonising exit. Nadal, though, is clearly not the powerhouse presence he once was either, having crashed out in the second round at Wimbledon a year ago and the third round at the US Open.
On the women’s side of the draw, Serena Williams’ quest to win her seventh Australian Open got a bit easier. An early exit also raised questions whether the 29-year-old Mallorcan could still compete in Grand Slam events like the Australian Open amid his declining performance in the last three years, reports the BBC. He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and ’01 and again last year – in between he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 straight years.
“I will keep it up and try playing like this”.
Andy Murray, the men’s second seed, and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka both impressed as the on-court action took centre stage after the allegations of matchfixing in the sport overshadowed Monday’s programme.
World number five Rafael Nadal was sent crashing out of the Australian Open first round by fellow Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco in an epic five-set match on Tuesday.
Verdasco should find this second round match a lot easier than that of his first. “Probably he deserved it”, Nadal said. But during the sleepy fall swing, when Nadal usually downshifts into energy-saver mode, he played a full schedule and battled his way back up to fifth in the world rankings. He had a 6-5 lead in the fourth and was ahead 30-0 in the 12th game before Verdasco came roaring back to win in the tiebreaker. For starters, the rest of the male players in the circuit are following the example set by him. Wilander said. “And how does it keep going in?” “‘He just hit everything and he miss.’ But when they are coming in, you play unbelievable”.
Verdasco steadied to take out the tie-break, only to see Nadal break in the opening game of the fifth. At the French Open, Djokovic beat him in straight sets.
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Mouratoglou believes Nadal has lost his ability to cover the court because of his footwork skills, and as a result, his confidence during matches has been affected.
