Verdasco Does Double Duty In Houston Texas

Written by: Staff on 12th April 2014

BNP Paribas 2013 Masters Tennis Tournament

Verdasco Does Double Duty In Houston Texas

epa03929051 Fernando Verdasco of Spain returns the ball to Richard Gasquet of France during their second round match at the BNP Paribas 2013 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 29 October 2013. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

By Ricky Dimon

It will be an all-Spanish singles final at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship on Sunday afternoon. The two compatriots, though, are heading into it after much different days at the office.

Fernando Verdasco spent two hours and 53 minutes on the court on Saturday. By contrast, Nicolas Almagro spent zero seconds on the court. Whereas Almagro got a walkover past Sam Querrey (back), Verdasco beat Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 7-5 then lost the doubles final with fellow Spaniard David Marrero to Bob and Mike Bryan 4-6, 6-4, 11-9.

“Both finals; I can’t ask for anything more,” Verdasco said following his semifinal singles victory. “Now I’ll try to recover and give my best this afternoon.”

The Spaniards certainly gave everything they had against the Bryan brothers and it was almost enough. Marrero and Verdasco broke in the seventh game of the first set before two more holds gave then an early lead. They dropped the second set and fell behind 9-7 in the match tiebreaker but battled back to even the score at 9-9. However, the Bryan’s took the next two points to clinch the title and help erase the demons of last year’s final loss to Jamie Murray and John Peers after missing a championship point.

Now it is Verdasco’s turn to attempt to bounce back from a narrow defeat in a final. He is 6-3 lifetime against Almagro, including 6-2 on clay. Verdasco, though, is just 5-13 for his career in ATP finals. Almagro, meanwhile, is second among active members on the ATP Tour with 12 clay-court titles–trailing only Rafael Nadal.

“He’s really dangerous on clay,” Almagro said of Verdasco. “He’s serving well. It will be a nice final. We are going to do our best.”

Topics: Atp, Bryan Brothers, Fernando Verdasco, Houston, Nicolas Almagro, Tennis, Tennis News, U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship

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10sBalls_com says:

April 12, 2014 at 11:03 pm

Verdasco Does Double Duty In Houston Texas – http://t.co/p6QLIIwp5k @FerVerdasco @RD_Tennistalk #tennis #houston #Verdasco
RD_Tennistalk says:

April 13, 2014 at 12:12 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: Verdasco Does Double Duty In Houston Texas – http://t.co/p6QLIIwp5k @FerVerdasco @RD_Tennistalk #tennis #houston #Verdasco