Nadal, Halep out as shocks rattle Australian Open
Print Edition
RAFAEL Nadal lost in the first round of a major for only the second time in his career, beaten in five sets by Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open in a reversal of their epic, 5-hour, 14-minute semifinal here seven years ago.
Fernando Verdasco rallied from a 1-2 deficit and recovered a break in the fifth set to claim a 7-6 (6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 win in 4 hours and 41 minutes yesterday, only his third victory in 17 matches against his fellow Spanish lefthander.
Nadal won his only Australian title in 2009 after beating Verdasco in the semifinals. The 14-time major winner’s only other first-round exit in a grand slam was at Wimbledon in 2013 when he lost to No. 135-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium.
“It’s a hard and painful loss,” the fifth-seeded Nadal said. “He was playing amazing in the last set ... more aggressive than me. He took more risks than me, and he won. Probably he deserved.”
There were two big upsets in the women’s draw, with No. 2 Simona Halep and seven-time grand slam winner Venus Williams losing in the first round.
Halep, the 2014 French Open finalist, lost 4-6, 3-6 to Zhang Shuai for her third first-round loss at Melbourne Park in the past five years, but giving the No. 133-ranked Chinese qualifier her first win at a grand slam after 14 losses.
“It’s OK. I don’t want to make this match like dramatic,” said Halep, who refused to blame an Achilles tendon problem that forced her out of a warmup event for her earlier loss.
Verdasco went for everything on his ground strokes, ripping 90 winners against only 37 for Nadal as he worked to the extremes to unsettle his former No. 1-ranked rival.
“To win against Rafa here coming from two sets down is unbelievable,” the 32-year-old, No. 45-ranked Verdasco said. “I think I played unbelievable — the fifth set from the break that he made me, I just started hitting winners.”
Stan Wawrinka, who beat Nadal in the 2014 Australian final, and four-time runner-up Andy Murray advanced, along with Lleyton Hewitt, the two-time major winner who is playing his 20th and last Australian Open tournament before retiring.
French Open champion Wawrinka was leading 7-6 (2), 6-3 when his opponent Dmitry Tursonov retired with what appeared to be an upper leg injury.
Williams lost 4-6, 2-6 to Johanna Konta, her eighth first-round loss at a major.
No. 3 Garbine Muguruza and No. 7 Angelique Kerber advanced along with two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azerenka, who closed play on center court with a 6-0, 6-0 rout of Alison Van Uytvanck.
The upset results took some focus off the match-fixing allegations that have overshadowed the first two days of the season’s first major.
No. 2-ranked Murray opened with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win over Alexander Zverev, and checked to see there were no calls from home — his wife is expecting their first child next month.
Among the other men advancing were No. 8 David Ferrer, No. 10 John Isner, No. 13 Milos Raonic, and No. 18 Feliciano Lopez.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
