Marinko Matosevic stuns Fernando Verdasco in the opening round – Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 2013
World number 31, Fernando Verdasco, had a shocking beginning at his Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters campaign and fell out of the tournament at the hands of the 54th ranked Australian, Marinko Matosevic. He battled for one hour and 51
minutes before succumbing in straight sets, 5-7, 3-6, ending his voyage at this clay court ATP Masters 1000 event.
The home favourite wasn’t expected to collapse against the Aussie veteran so cheaply but he was completely outdone by the crafty game play of Matosevic. Verdasco had faced the 27-year-old Australian in Washington two years back
and won the contest comprehensively in twin sets, 6-4, 6-4. However, it was the payback time for the Aussie underdog and he surprised everyone by taking down the Spaniard in a convincing manner.
Verdasco was off to an ideal start to the match, breaking his opponent in the very first game and then imposing a 2-0 lead up front. A further exchange of break points was witnessed in the fifth and eighth games but the Spanish
veteran held his lead to reach 5-4. Matosevic seized an opportunity in the 10th game and levelled the scores to 5-5. He held his next serve before crafting another break opportunity. The 27-year-old went on to catch his second consecutive break
chance and finished off the set at 7-5 to lead 1-0 in the match.
Once getting into his winning groove, Matosevic was off to a flyer in the following set. He nailed two back-to-back serve breaks and rocketed away to 5-0 in no time. He was serving for the match at 5-1 when Verdasco made his last
attempt to remain alive in the contest. The Spaniard broke the Australian serve in the seventh game and curtailed the deficit to 3-5 with a successful serve hold in the following game. However, he couldn’t restrain Matosevic from serving out of the match at
3-5 and eventually finished on the losing end.
Matosevic will have to face a real challenge in the second round of the tournament, as he faced the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal. Being the third seed in the tournament, Nadal has received a bye to the second round.
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