2011 Sony Ericsson Open - ATP Seeds Part IX: Fernando Verdasco
World Number 9 Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco is seeded ninth at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, due to his current World Number 9 ranking. He has been playing tennis in a professional capacity for ten years, and he joined the Association of Tennis Professionals
[ATP] World Tour in 2001. He is the third highest ranked Spanish player on the ATP, after World Number 1 Rafael Nadal and World Number 6 David Ferrer.
Verdasco is a left-handed player, and his highest career ranking is World Number 7. He has won a total of five career titles in the past ten years. Fernando Verdasco is currently coached by compatriot and friend, Juan Luis Tati
Rascon. He has been under the Spanish coach’s tutelage since March 2008.
The Spanish pro made his first appearance on the hard courts of Miami in 2003, when he was ranked World Number 160. He had a reasonably impressive run, moving past Karol Kucera of Slovakia and upsetting Max Mirnyi of Belarus to
make it to the third round. He was defeated by compatriot Carlos Moya at this stage of the tournament. Next year’s run at the event was not as successful, with the player receiving a bye into the second round only to be defeated by Czech player Radek Stepanek.
Verdasco’s results at the tournament were mediocre at best for his next few appearances in Miami. He was seeded in 2006 and made it as far as the third round of the event only to be ousted by Andy Roddick. In the next two years,
he played as a seeded player again but could not make it past the second round on both occasions.
However, the 27-year-old player redeemed himself in 2009 by posting good results at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami. He received a bye in the first round and defeated Benjamin Becker, Feliciano Lopez and Radek Stepanek to
reach the quarterfinals. Here, he was ousted by Scottish pro Andy Murray.
Next year in 2010, Verdasco managed to reproduce the same results as his previous year. As World Number 12, he was seeded once again and defeated players Dudi Sela, Jurgen Melzer and Marin Cilic in his first three matches at Miami.
He was eventually defeated by Czech pro Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Verdasco has been posting mixed results in his last few tournaments, making it to the finals at the SAP Open but falling in the first rounds at Memphis and Acapulco. His most recent tournament was the ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells, where he was ousted by Sam Querrey in the third round. His performance at the Miami event is unpredictable at the moment.
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