Field set for World Tour Finals – Verdasco misses out
After toiling for two hours and 45 minutes, and holding two match points against Gael Monfils in the third round of the BNP Paribas Masters, Fernando Verdasco saw his chances of qualifying for the World Tour Finals disappear.
Monfils’ 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 7-5 win ended the Spaniard’s slim chances of qualifying for the season-ending championships in London – he entered the match needing to win through to the final to remain in contention - but in the end saw his hopes dashed far short of that lofty goal.
Verdasco’s loss today means the eight players who will contest the World Tour Finals are: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick.
Roddick’s third-round win over Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis earlier in the day had ended Jürgen Melzer’s chances of joining the elite for the tournament, leaving Verdasco the only other player capable of sneaking a spot in the tournament until his defeat by Monfils sealed his fate. Melzer had needed Roddick to lose that match, and to himself win the title in Paris, to qualify for the World Tour Finals.
After a tightly-contested start to today’s match between Verdasco and Monfils, it was the latter who gained the first break, with a passing shot providing the flashy Frenchman with a 4-3 lead, which he consolidated with an authoritative service hold the next game.
Serving for the set, however, the Monfils finished the opening two rallies of the game by sending the ball over the baseline to fall behind 0-30, and some superb net play from Verdasco levelled the scores at 5-5.
Monfils though gained a double break-point chance in the next game, only to find that slip away, before the Spaniard sprayed a forehand into the tramlines to award him a third bite at the cherry. The world No. 14 once again failed to capitalise on the last chance he would get to break for the game, and found himself serving to stay in the set.
Mission accomplished and it was on to the tiebreak, but it was Verdasco who took the honours in the breaker as he made an all-important step towards keeping his World Tour Finals qualifying hopes at least temporarily alive.
It was the left-hander too who took the early break in the second set, going up 2-1, but with momentum clearly running with Verdasco, he allowed his 24-year-old opponent back in the match with an error on break point the next game allowing Monfils to level the scores at 2-2.
From there, games remained on serve into another tiebreak where Monfils proved the value of scrambling to get one more ball back, as he chased down one Verdasco volley only for his opponent to net the overhead with his next shot. Monfils then went on to win the last five points of the breaker too, much to his visible delight, level the match at one set apiece.
Neither player was able to generate a break-point chance in the third set until the world No. 9 found himself with two match-point chances against Monfil’s serve in its 10th game, but was unable to convert either as this set too seemed destined to be decided by a tiebreak.
Monfils though had other ideas as he generated his first chances to break Verdasco’s serve for the match the next game, and when the 26-year-old hit a drop volley into the net the break, and the chance to serve for the match in front of his home crowd, was secured.
And so, the next game was victory.
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