Goffin Discusses Reaching 4R
Goffin Discusses Reaching 4R
Mar142017
The Indian Wells crowds will have been treated to some cracking matches throughout the early part of the second week of the…
A repeat of the Australian Open final is on the cards with Rafael Nadal heading for a round four clash with Roger Federer …
Jamie Murray is the last British player left in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after brother Andy Murray and Dan Evans were knocked out of the doubles.
World number one Andy Murray, who was surprisingly beaten by Vasek Pospisil in the singles, and Evans lost 6-4 6-3 to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.
The victors will now play Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the last eight.
Jamie Murray and Soares advanced with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 win over Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi.
Andy Murray, Evans and Kyle Edmund were all eliminated in the second round of the singles, while British women’s number one Johanna Konta, who beat compatriot Heather Watson in round two, was knocked out in round three.
Fernando Verdasco once deemed it the best match he had played. Five hours and 14 minutes of no-holds-barred shot-making – two Spaniards trading blows under lights on a heaving Rod Laver Arena, a shootout he would ultimately fall short in against his more decorated countryman, Rafael Nadal, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-7(1), 6-4.
On Tuesday, the pair will resume their rivalry in the round of 32 at the BNP Paribas Open. The fifth-seeded Nadal has lost three of his past five matches against the No. 29 seed but still leads their overall FedEx ATP Head2Head series 15-3.
The five-hour-plus marathon match between the two southpaws came in the semi-finals of the Australian Open eight years ago and at the time was the longest semi-final played in the tournament’s history. It is still regarded as one of the greatest matches of all time.
Nadal would go on to win back-to-back five-setters, denying Roger Federer to claim what remains his only triumph at Melbourne Park. Prior to their 2009 Australian Open epic the closest Verdasco had gone to derailing his countryman came down to two tie-break sets in respective defeats. In 2006, in the round of 16 on grass at the Aegon Championships in London, Nadal eked out a narrow 2-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(3) win while a round of 16 battle in the 2011 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Cincinnati also fell his way, 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 7-6(9).
Nadal would go on to win the pair’s first 13 matches in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series before Verdasco finally landed his breakthrough in the round of 16 at the ATP World Tour Madrid Masters in 2012. Nadal served for that match at 5-2 in the decider only to lose the final five games in a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 result. It would be his only clay-court loss of the season.
The pair didn’t play for nearly three years until the ATP World Tour Miami Masters where Verdasco registered back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 victories over his higher-ranked compatriot with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 upset in the round of 32.
Watch Full Match Replays
Arguably Verdasco’s finest moment against his fellow Spaniard, however, came in the opening round of last year’s Australian Open where he exacted revenge for that harrowing defeat seven years earlier, 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 in four hours and 41 minutes.
He clocked an astonishing 90 winners against a fit-again, though somewhat more passive Nadal on Rod Laver Arena. Trailing a break in the decider and with his back to the wall, he thumped his way through the final six games of the match.
Nadal squared their 2016 ledger with a 6-0, 7-6(9) win at the same stage of last year’s BNP Paribas Open where he saved five set points in the second set before sealing the straight-sets victory. He will again start favourite in the 19th instalment of their rivalry on Tuesday, their ninth hard-court encounter.
