Verdasco, Haase in semis
dubai — Veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco produced a magnificent exhibition of attacking tennis to earn his first win over the mercurial Frenchman Gael Monfils on Thursday. The 6-3 7-5 win over the fourth seeded Monfils also gave the 33-year-old Verdasco his first semifinal spot in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Verdasco got off to a flying start holding his serve to love and then breaking Monfils in an epic 16-point second game.
From then on it was an uphill battle for Monfils as Verdasco kept playing solid tennis to take the first set.
In the second set, Verdasco broke Monfils in the sixth game. But Monfils had the centre crowd on his feet when he got the break of serve in the 10th game.
It turned out to be a false down for the Frenchman as he couldn’t handle the pressure of staying in the match on his own serve in the 12th game giving Verdasco a memorable win in the rainhit quarterfinal encounter.
“I think I played almost a perfect match today. I mean, maybe I could have been a little bit more aggressive on my serve, but, of course, if I look more for an aggressive serve, my percentage will go down and playing with second serves against him means defending on many points,” Verdasco later told reporters. “So I tried for a big percentage on the first serve and tried to play with my forehand almost as much as possible. You know I am very happy with the way I completed the match,” he added.
The rain delays did disturb the Spaniard’s rhythm.
“Yes, a little bit, of course, disappointed after, like, Love40, I didn’t take, and after that, he went back to 5-All after the rain delay. So it was not easy, but I tried to be focused and was just looking for the next point. I tried to keep doing the things I did before the rain delay,” he said.
“So, you know, I am very happy, that I’m in the semifinals now. I will try to recover and get ready for tomorrow.”
Verdasco’s opponent in the semifinal will be Dutchman Robin Haase.
In the battle of two unseeded players. Haase beat Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur 6-2 4-6 6-4.
“We played last year in Paris Bercy, not really far away, last tournament of the season, in the first round. He retired after I was 6-2 up,” Verdasco said on his next opponent Haase.
“So that was the last time we played each other. We played each other I think five times, more or less, few wins for him, few wins for me.
“He has a good serve and good forehand. You know, it’s going to be a nice match. You know the semifinals are never easy.