Verdasco Breaks Nadal's Heart

After a shabby period, Fernando Verdasco signalled his return to top form with a shock defeat over the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, in a nail-biting third round encounter in Madrid. Although Nadal has won all their previous 13 meeting, the two shared some pretty heated battles in the past, the stand-out being the memorable 2010 Melbourne semifinal in which Nadal triumphed after five excruciating sets. However, as the world's number 2 is almost unreachable on his beloved clay, few were expecting Verdasco to stand a chance this time.

It was the home town player that started off strongly though, Fernando rising to a 5-2 advantage. He served out the first set 6-3, but quickly fell behind in the second, allowing Rafa to turn things around. It looked like a one way encounter from then onwards, with Nadal building a 5-2 lead in the decider. With two breaks of serve under his sleeve, he looked very much as the clear winner. 

Verdasco kept on fighting though. He broke once, then hold serve and then he broke again, leveling the match at 5 all. His opponent's stellar display stunned Nadal who was left with no reaction while Fernando sealed the victory after winning 5 consecutive games. The triumph meant the world for Verdasco who seemed delighted by his outstanding performance. After obtaining the sweetest triumph of his career, he goes on to face Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.

On the other hand Nadal, who won his two prior claycourt tournaments, was hoping to gather some momentum ahead of the defense of his French Open title. Instead, he now needs to start over from scratch. "I am going to Rome now with maybe a bit of a lack of confidence which I don't deserve after all the work I have put in here", he added.

The Spaniard also threatened not to return next year if the organizers don't ditch the slippery blue clay. "The only thing that I know is that if things continue like this I am very sad but next year will be one less tournament in my calendar. If you put the Cincinnati tournament on grass just before the U.S. Open do you think people are going to be happy? I don't think so. That's a similar situation. It's not drastic I am just being consistent. I am not prepared to risk something happening next year if nothing changes."
Nonetheless, he found no excuses for his defeat. "I lost because I deserved to lose today," he said. "Even when I was 5-2 ahead and I had a chance to close the match I didn't know how to do it. He played better than me and he beat me, that's it."

Fernando Verdasco joins the elite group of players who scored win over Nadal on clay. He also breaks his opponent 22 winning streak with a 6-3,3-6,7-5 triumph.

photos: GETTY IMAGES