Verdasco stuns Nadal in Melbourne

Nadal overcame Verdasco in a momentous five-setter in the Australian Open semi-finals six years ago, but few expected a similar battle with now 32-year-old Verdasco’s best days behind him.

On a day where eight seeds were bundled out across the men’s and women’s draw, there was no bigger name to fall than Spain’s 14-time Major singles champion Nadal, who was upstaged by compatriot Fernando Verdasco, in a five-set epic at Rod Laver Arena (RLA), reports Xinhua. Murray also said it was “a little bit hypocritical” for tournaments – including the Australian Open – to be sponsored by betting firms.

“But I played well”. I didn’t want to lose and after that break, I started playing really good, hitting very hard serve, forehand, and not making many mistakes.

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

Nadal, who had beaten Verdasco 14 times in 16 meetings, talked about his game and the way tennis is changing following his loss.

The 25-year-old, who beat Frenchman Lucas Pouille in straight sets, says grinding his teeth causes “stress and headaches”, adding: “I guess maybe it’s just a way to calm myself down”. “You have to be proactive I think with things like this and go and speak to the players rather than them reading about it in the newspapers or listening to it on the TV or the radio”.

Verdasco gained the advantage in the first game but Nadal rallied at 3-5 down to earn his break back as another tie-break was called upon.

Pitted against a retiring legend, Duckworth was cast as a villain for the night with nearly all the hometown spectators in Hewitt’s court.

Earlier in the week, Australian Open officials had christened Day 2 of the tournament “C’mon Day” in honour of what could have potentially been the final match of Hewitt’s career.

Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep have suffered surprise first round losses at the Australian Open in Melbourne. But I did. I think I did everything I could.

He reached the quarterfinal once at the Wimbledon Championships in 2013, where he led eventual champion Andy Murray two sets to love before he got defeated after five sets.

Stepanek took a 4-2 head-to-head edge into the match, although Wawrinka has now won their last three matches.

His exit continues a series of heartbreaks at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne.

“This year was a completely different story – I had been playing and practising great and working so much, so it’s tough when you work so much and you arrive at a very important event and you go out so early”.

Also advancing on the women’s side were No. 9 Karolina Pliskova, No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky, No. 15 and 2015 semifinalist Madison Keys, No. 18 Elina Svitolina, No. 19 Jelena Jankovic, No. 20 Ana Ivanovic and No. 21 Ekaterina Makarova, who beat Venus Williams in the first round here in 2014.