Fernando Verdasco is one of those enigmas on ATP tour, once a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, the Spaniard has proved much more inconsistent since those heady days in 2009. However, the left-handed Spaniard is still more than a match for any player in the Emirates ATP rankings when he is on song.
Verdasco continued his already strong week by defeating fourth seed Gael Monfils in straight sets, 63 75 picking up his first career win over the Frenchman.
Verdasco used his dominant forehand to good effect throughout the match, whilst also demonstrating his improving backhand. The forehand was still where most of Verdasco’s best shots came from though, as he powered past Monfils in the first set Monfils had dropped a set in the second round against Britain’s Dan Evans, and looked second best throughout in this tie.
Monfils was delayed in his efforts to serve to stay in the match down 3-5 in the second by a rain break, but the Frenchman held. Instead, the break seemed more successful in hurting Verdasco’s rhythm, as he promptly lost his serve trying to close the match out at 5-4. Verdasco quickly made amends in the next game, earning two break points. Monfils saved one with his tenth ace of the match, but Verdasco took the second for another chance to serve out. This time he took it, closing the surprise win out in just over one hour and twenty minutes.
The win for Verdasco is even more surprising given that two out of the three wins for Monfils came arguably during the peak of Verdasco’s career, between 2008 and 2011.
Monfils is the second major seed that Verdasco has managed to take down in Dubai this week, as he also beat compatriot and sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round in a much closer three sets match.
If Verdasco is an unlikely semi-finalist from a bottom half of the draw that also included Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka, then the other semi-finalist is positively shocking.
Dutchman Robin Haase, who defeated Berdych in the second round, took full advantage of Damir Dzumhur’s win over Stan Wawrinka, by knocking out the Bosnian player 62 46 64 in the bottom quarter-final.
The head-to-head between Haase and Verdasco is delicately poised, at 3-3. Verdasco has won the last two meetings, though the most recent was via a retirement from Haase in the Paris-Bercy Masters last year. This is Verdasco’s best run in Dubai, having not progressed past the second round in his three previous appearances. This is Haase’s debut year in Dubai.
The top half quarter-finals see top seed and World No.1 Andy Murray take on veteran German Philipp Kohlschreiber, twenty-three year-old Frenchman Lucas Pouille take on the conqueror of Roger Federer, Evgeny Donskoy.