Rafael nadal stunned by fernando verdasco in five set thriller

Verdasco won the first set before Nadal wrestled control right back – although it was the former No. 1 who choked in the end, with Verdasco taking charge of the final set in stunning fashion, eventually winning 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 in a match that lasted four hours and forty minutes.

Fernando Verdasco rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win the last two sets, recovering a break in the fifth as well, claiming a 7-6 (6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, only his third victory in 17 matches against his fellow Spanish lefthander.

That year, he fought off Verdasco in another five-set epic which clocked in at five hours, 14 minutes – the second longest match in tournament history – in the semi-finals.

The momentum had well and truly swung and Verdasco broke again in the sixth game, a crunching forehand victor followed by a Nadal error as he took a 4-2 lead.

It was Nadal’s earliest Australian Open exit in 11 appearances, and is only the second opening round loss in his Grand Slam career. “I don’t know how, just, you know I was closing the eyes and everything was coming in and I keep doing it and I was doing well”.

Verdasco, 32, sealed the 4hr 41min classic in style, breaking Nadal’s serve for a third time in the set with a crosscourt victor.

“The match is a tough loss for me, especially because it’s not like past year when I arrived here playing bad and feeling myself not ready for it”, Nadal said.

“I’m more excited than nervous now”, Murray, speaking in an on-court interview, told the crowd of the pending arrival.

The world number three – on court before Great Britain’s Johanna Konta beat Venus Williams – has never gone past round two in Melbourne but looked in complete control as she overcame Anett Kontaveit 6-0 6-4 in just 60 minutes.

“Sometimes if you do what I did today, you can put all the balls outside and it’s like “this guy’s insane”.

“I think today’s match was very similar [to 2009] in terms of even games in the sets, going to five sets”, Verdasco said.

Meanwhile, in his last Australian Open, an emotional Lleyton Hewitt made it through to the second round in the men’s singles, the 34-year-old Australian beating compatriot James Duckworth 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-4.

So I was very happy with the way that I finished the match.

No. 2 Simona Halep and seven-time Grand Slam victor Venus Williams also went out in the first round on Tuesday, when a series of upsets took some focus off a match-fixing controversy that had overshadowed the first day of the season’s first major. I tried to be aggressive. “Was not my day, but let’s keep going, that the only thing I can do”. I don’t really understand how it all works.

Big serving duo John Isner and Milos Raonic are however safely through.

Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka progressed to the second round after his opponent Dmitry Tursunov was forced into early retirement through injury, while Spain’s David Ferrer, seeded eighth, beat Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-4 6-4 6-2.