@Sportshorn
It took two sets on two separate days but it didn’t matter for Fernando Verdasco. The veteran Spaniard and former Top 10 player pulled off the biggest upset so far on the Men’s side at the French Open stunning the No. 9 seed Alexander Zverev 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
After the match was postponed on Monday due to concerns about rain and darkness, the level of play didn’t change much less than 24 hours later. It was a match filled with missed opportunities and mistakes. If you looked at Verdasco’s stat line, you would have thought he had lost the match not won it. 49 errors and just 23 winners. He was broken five times and had five double faults. Luckily for him, Zverev’s numbers were just as poor. 50 errors, more than half coming off his backhand and just 27 winners. He was broken eight times and also had five double faults. The difference; Verdasco managed to win the bigger points when needed and kept the younger Zverev as far back in the court as possible.
“I mean, I was, of course, trying to keep him back because he’s a player that when he’s inside the court, he’s very dangerous,” said Verdasco.” His shots are very powerful, serve, forehand, backhand, it doesn’t matter. When you play short, he normally kills you both sides.
So I was just trying to play as deep as possible and trying to keep him as far from the baseline as possible also. But it was a tough battle. Very close. Very close third set.”
Frustration began to settle in after Zverev was broken for the seventh time early in the fourth set. Never one to shy away from racquet abuse, he snapped his racquet in half in disgust. Two games later the 20 year old German threw another racquet to the ground narrowly escaping a point penalty. It was a stark contrast to the player who won his first Masters 1000 title in Rome two weeks ago and hoisted the trophy on the clay in Munich back in April.
“I played absolute sh$&”, Zverev said after the match. “Made the difference. Quite simple. He played very well. He played very smart as well. Tried to push me back a lot, which he did. And I didn’t feel the ball on my racquet very well, so I played very short and very defensive all the time, which with my game and with my body, it’s not easy to do.”
Verdasco at 33, has won many big matches in his career including an upset of Rafael Nadal in the first round at the Australian Open in 2016 but he has never been past the fourth round at Roland-Garros. He lost to Zverev in the opening round in Madrid just three weeks ago.
“I’m very happy of the way that I played,” said the Dubai resident, “and being able to beat a player like Alexander that is one of the players with, you know, in such a great form, not because only winning Rome, also the weeks before and almost the last year already.
So it was a great victory for me, but, you know, this has to be not only like a point just to stay and to enjoy, of course, I have to enjoy, but not just to enjoy, also to keep going.”
Verdasco will now face doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the next round. Hebert won his first round match in straight sets and will have the hometown crowd on his side.