Fernando Verdasco Stuns Rafael Nadal In Australian Open First Round

Fernando Verdasco stunned World No. 5 Rafael Nadal 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday. Nadal won the first two games of the final set, but Verdasco won the next six, completing his victory with a 96 miles per hour cross-court victor. He won the match in 4 hours, 41 minutes, on a service return victor.

Verdasco will now play Israel’s Dudi Sela in round two and may feel a sense of justice after he lost a classic five-set contest with Nadal in the 2009 Australian Open semi-finals.

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. 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. I was closing the eyes and everything when I was coming in.

Nadal and Verdasco fought tough and hard in the first set, with each player preserving their serves to force a tiebreak.

While it is only the second time the player has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam, it is the third successive major tournament that he has exited in the first week. I was practicing a little bit different, trying to be more inside the court.

On another sizzling day in Melbourne, sweat-drenched Murray doused the challenge of exciting German prospect Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 to get his campaign underway.

Viktor Troicki nearly joined them in departing at the first hurdle, but the 21st seed saved two match points in an epic five-set win over Daniel Munoz de la Nava.

The Romanian, who reached the quarterfinals of the competition in the previous two years, bowed out at the first attempt this time around after losing to China’s Zhang Shuai 6-4 6-3. In the fourth I was not very bad, but he played better than me, too. “He was playing awesome in the last set… more aggressive than me”.

Zhang, who plays Alize Cornet of France, broke into tears after her win.

“In terms of being competitive, I was competitive”, Nadal told the post-match press conference.

Earlier, four-time finalist Murray set up a showdown with home hope Sam Groth after steaming through his first-round match.

“I tried to change… but she beat me – she was just better today”. I’m like, ‘you know I didn’t play again after that?

Rising star Garbine Muguruza beat Estonian debutante Anett Kontaveit 6-0, 6-4 in one hour exactly – and immediately set her sights on dethroning Serena Williams in the final.

“First win – I’m so happy, so excited”.

“I think it’s irrelevant how old she is because she’s such a champion with so much experience and so much knowledge about the game”, Konta said. The loss is a huge disappointment to Nadal’s fans – and tennis fans worldwide – who had been expecting great action from his side of the Australian draw where Nadal, now ranked No. 5 in the world, would have faced Andy Murray.

“I just think that it should be tennis that does a better job of explaining …”

“It’s tough but at the same time I know I did everything that I can to be ready for it. It was not my day – let’s keep going – that’s the only thing”.

“Even if she’s playing with one leg out there, you’ve got to really take care of things on your own because she’s an incredible player”. Federer, who advanced into the third round today after seeing off Alexandr Dolgopolov, is wary of the upset he suffered past year at the hands of Italy’s Andreas Seppi in the third round at Melbourne Park.

Milos Raonic, who is now working with Carlos Moya and beat Roger Federer in this month’s Brisbane final, breezed past Lucas Pouille.