CAMELOT FANTASIES

Rafa has a tough assignment his first round in the ATP 500 at Hamburg - Fernando Verdasco.

6 years ago, these two players played a great match in the Australian Open semifinal, except at 4-5 in the 5th set when Verdasco imploded with double faults serving to stay in the match.

Fernando Verdasco takes the 4th set tiebreaker 7-1 with a mighty effort.


Nadal consoles Verdasco after he broke himself to lose the match.


Here's a reminder of how good they were:


Rafa would go on to beat Roger Federer in another 5 set battle in the final for his only Australian Open title and his only major that year, then he would win an incredible 3 majors the following year.

I don't think Verdasco recovered for a long time after that loss.  He was 0-13 against Nadal until his last 2 matches where he finally beat Nadal in the Madrid Masters on blue clay in 2012, and then their last match most recently in Miami this year, both matches in 3 sets, where Verdasco dropped the second and went on to win the decider.

Nadal needs to be fit to beat Verdasco.  Verdasco has confidence now against Rafa, and though he didn't play well lately, his last two matches were against Wawrinka at Wimbledon and Murray at Queens Club on grass.  Now they return to the red clay where Rafa has not lost to Fernando. 

I think Rafa has to snatch this in 2 sets.  I'm not sure he is fit enough to go to 3.

Rafa also plays doubles with his young friend Jaume Munar who was the Roland Garros Junior runner-up two years ago.  But they face a tough battle playing #1 seeds Bolelli and Fognini, winners of this year's Australian Open doubles.  As part of the deal to play in Hamburg, Rafa helped 18 year old world #683 Munar get a wild card into the main singles draw. Munar will play GGL - Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round.

Respectfully,
masterclass