Fernando had a hard fought win today in his first round match at the Australian Open against Carsten Ball, finally managing to win it 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 7-5, 6-2. The first set had both Fernando and Carsten holding service games until the tiebreak, from which Carsten emerged the victor. Fernando broke Ball’s serve several times in the next two sets, only to be broken right back, managing to come out with guns blazing in the second set tiebreak and then finally secure one last break in the third set to avoid another tiebreak. I missed about half of the final set (my roommate locked herself out of her bedroom :p) but Fernando seemed to finally wear Ball down and clinched a hard-fought victory. He moves into the second round where he faces Ukranian qualifier Ivan Sergeyev.