Fernando had a very tough second round encounter against Michael Berrer today, prevailing 4-6, 7-5, 7-66 in his first career match at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic and his first hard court match since his quarterfinals loss to Tomas Berdych at the Miami Masters earlier this spring.

Fernando, on serve to stay in the first set, double faulted to give Berrer a 6-4 lead. In the second set, Fernando went down an early break and trailed 4-1 and had to serve to stay in the match at 5-2. Berrer held two match points at 5-3, but Fernando found his form again and won the next four games to tie it up at one set all. The two fought hard to force a tiebreak in the deciding set (with Fernando once again having to serve to stay in the match)

Fernando suffered a scare when he twisted his ankle at 5-all in the tiebreak, but he was determined to close out the match. Afterwards, he said it was “painful for 1 minute” (thanks to @TennisRomi) but managed to close out the match 8-6 in the TB after just over two hours and 40 minutes.

“Even when I was match points down I just tried to not make mistakes and forced him to hit a winner to win the match. After that, when I broke back, I started to get confidence and then broke him again. Those four games were the best of the match for me. To get through the match on a hot night, playing with pressure, is a good win.”