Rafael Nadal suffers first-round loss to Fernando Verdasco at Australian Open

The first-round exit was 2009 champion Nadal’s first at Melbourne Park and only his second at a grand slam.

Gary Isherwood, Area Director for Cosentino Australia said they were excited to be starting 2016 with Rafael Nadal, celebrating his ongoing success as well as Cosentino’s achievements. I tried to be aggressive and it went well.

The former world No. 1 won the tournament in 2009 after his epic clash against Verdasco. It was also Nadal’s first and only Aussie Open title, beating career rival Roger Federer in the final round of the tournament seven years ago.

After Nadal got early break in the fifth set of Tuesday’s game, Verdasco reeled off six straight games to win the decider and upset his Spanish rival in the opening round. Nadal stayed in the match so long partially because of Verdasco’s 91 unforced errors.

“I will just try to keep it up and keep playing like this in the next round”.

That said, Nadal’s record of having won 66 times in 88 matches in 2015 still ranked him among the strongest players on Tour and the Spaniard took his head to head against Verdasco to 15-2 by beating him on the occasion of the players’ most recent meeting at Hamburg last season.

This latest loss for the 29-year-old extends a Grand Slam dry spell which goes back to the 2014 French Open, and will increase fears over his long-term ability to compete at the elite level. Both have huge forehands but in the past, Nadal has been just too solid.