Fernando fought from a set and a break down to dispatch his compatriot David Ferrer 6-7⁴, 7-5, 6-1 to advance to his first final at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. It’s his second consecutive final after Monte Carlo last week.

Fernando captured his fourth title at the SAP Open (d. Roddick) in San Jose earlier this year and is now in his 12th career final and third of the season. Fernando faces Robin Soderling in the final.

“This win is very important for me because it is the first time that I have played in two consecutive finals, and I would especially like to win here, so I will try to rest well and to be at my best tomorrow,” said Verdasco. “The fact that I have reached two clay court finals gives me a lot of confidence. I feel good and comfortable with my play. This year I have adapted to the surface better than ever; as I get more experienced it becomes easier.

“David was dominating the match and playing at a very high level; he’s a tough player and I was waiting to see if would give me a chance to get into the match again,” reflected Verdasco. “I took that chance as soon as I had it, and that gave me a lot of confidence in myself.

“It’s going to be a very difficult final. He has won most of our matches and is ranked higher than me but I think it all depends on how we play tomorrow. Soderling is a player who hits extremely hard, you have to move him around and try to tire him out so that his shots are not as precise.”

You can watch Fernando’s post match interview in English or Spanish

Fernando defeated Ernests Gulbis 6-2, 7-6⁴ to advance to his first semifinal at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. He faces compatriot David Ferrer for a place in Sunday’s final.

“Tomorrow we’ll both do everything we can to win, both David and I are playing well and the best player will win.”“I am not playing my best tennis here, at some moments I feel good, but in others not. But I have faith in myself and I think that’s very important in every match.

David always plays very well here, it’s the fourth time that he has reached the semi finals, and I am sure that he’s very motivated, but it’s a very special tournament for me too. I’ve been coming here since I was young, when I studied at the CAR in Barcelona, and I’m also very motivated to win. It’s going to be a very even match.”

Fernando faced a major scare today against Jurgen Melzer, but managed to once again fight back from a set deficit to overcome the Austrian and advance to the quarterfinals, defending his points from last year’s event. The two met last month in Miami and it was a similar situation to today, as Fernando found himself down 3-6 in the first set of both matches. He had to fight to force a tiebreak both times which he won (7-4 in Miami, 7-1 today) The major difference was that last month, Fernando quickly too control of the final set, taking a 5-0 lead before Melzer finally held serve and Fernando quickly closed out the match. This time, Melzer took the early lead 2-0, but Fernando quickly found his game again and closed it out 6-3 in the final set.

He takes on Ernests Gulbis for a spot in the semifinals. The two have never played before so it will be an interesting matchup. He plays second up on Center Court (not before 2:45pm local time)

““I didn’t feel very comfortable during the match and they were not the ideal conditions for me, but I’m happy to have reached the semi finals.”

“Tomorrow’s match with Gulbis is going to be difficult. He’s a player that is a player that is perhaps a little less consistent than me, but I’m going to have to be careful. He plays very flat, and if the ball doesn’t bounce he’s going to feel very comfortable, so I’m going to have to move him around a lot.”

“I’m trying to hold up as well as I can. Physically I’m tired, last week in Monte Carlo was tough and this week is the same, but I hope to keep on progressing and to play better tomorrow than I did today.”

“Originally I hadn’t intended to play in this tournament, my plan was to only play at the Masters 1000 and Roland Garros, but when the time came, and following some requests from the club, I decided to come. I also did it for the fans, who always treat me incredibly well.”

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Fernando has also made an early commitment to play the Queens’ Club tournament in June to warm up for the Wimbledon Championships. He joins Marin Cilic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the latest players to confirm their appearance. The trio will join Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Roddick as top seeds at the prestigious grass-court tournament.

(via LTA.org)

Unfortunately Fernando lost 6-0, 6-1 to Rafa in the Monte Carlo final. The score doesn’t reflect how close at some times the match was (check out the amazing point below!) but Rafa was just too good from the first point.

Despite the loss, Fernando can take away some positives from this week. Not only did he reach his first ever masters semifinal, but he reached his first Masters final, and will re-enter the top ten at #9 this week. So despite a disappointing finish, his success in Monte Carlo will give him some confidence for the rest of the clay season. Barcelona next, where he will face either Richard Gasquet or Igor Andreev.

Here’s his post match presser:

(Apologies for not getting this posted sooner, I was having server issues that wouldn’t let me login to wordpress. Got it all sorted and now I can post!)

It took just over two hours and four match points, but Fernando finally closed out his quarterfinal match against fellow Spaniard Albert Montanes, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-0. With the win, he advances to his first ever career Masters semifinal. He goes on to face world #2 Novak Djokovic tomorrow for a spot in the final against either David Ferrer or defending champion Rafael Nadal.

Fernando was up 5-1 in the second set and held two match points on his serve before Montanes was able to successfully break him. He had another match point on Montanes’ next serve, but the Catalan held and went on to level the match at 5-all. Fernando finally held serve at 6-5, only or Montanes to force a tiebreak. He raced out to a 4-1 lead and helped by a few brilliant shots and some costly errors from Fernando, took the second set tiebreak 7-4.

Fernando managed to put the surprise comeback behind him and immediately broke Montanes to start the third set. From there, he hardly looked back, alternating between breaking and holding serve. Montanes won only five points the entire third set, which Fernando took 6-0, having three match points on his service game but only needing one to finally close out the match.

Fernando has also accepted a wild card to play the Barcelona Open next week. He’ll be making his sixth appearance at the tournament, a 500 series event, and hoping to defend his quarterfinal points from last year, his best showing at the tournament, where he lost in three sets to Fernando González.

“It is great news for us and for all the fans that a player of Fernando Verdasco’s stature has accepted the challenge to play in Barcelona,” said the tournament’s Director and Davis Cup captain, Albert Costa. “Fernando is in great form right now, having reached the semi finals in Monte Carlo earlier today.”

Fernando joins Alberto Martín, David Nalbandián, Filip Krajinovic and Barcelona native Marcel Granollers as the main draw recipients of wild cards to the Barcelona Open BancSabadell, which begins on Monday.

(via barcelona open bancsabadell

The third time was a charm for Fernando as he broke his Berdych curse and defeated the Czech number one 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to his second consecutive quarterfinals in Monte Carlo. Berdych won their previous two meetings in Indian Wells and Miami on hard court and had a 2-1 advantage over Fernando on clay (Fernando won their last clay meeting in 2009 in Rome) but Fernando made sure to put the hard court defeats and their head to head behind him. Fernando fought back from a set down to claim his second clay victory over Berdych and bringing their lifetime H2H to 4-6.

Up next, Fernando faces fellow Spaniard and clay court specialist Albert Montanes in the quarterfinals, and will be riding high on confidence from his win over Berdych as he looks to advance to his first ever career Masters semifinal. Vamos Fernando!

Fernando is also still using his old Tecnifibre racquets this tournament, but painted over because he is in the process of switching to Dunlop and is testing racquets to find a good fit. His new contract with Dunlop is for 4-5 years.

Fernando advanced to the third round, defending Frenchman Julien Benneteau, 6-2, 6-1 earlier today in just under and hour and fifteen minutes to set up an inevitable rematch between him and Tomas Berdych, who defeated Richard Gasquet in similar fashion, 6-2, 6-0, in just under an hour. It will be the third straight meeting in as many tournaments for Fernando and Berdych.

Fernando ended his Sony Ericsson Open run with losses in the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. He lost a tough match against Tomas Berdych earlier today despite being up a set and a break, 6-4, 6-7⁵, 4-6 and he and Feliciano lost their doubles match to compatriots and Davis Cup teammates Nicolas Almagro and Tommy Robredo, 5-7, 3-6.

So now it’s off to get ready for the clay season. Fernando is scheduled to play Monte Carlo-Rome-Madrid-Nice-Roland Garros for his clay season, although he could ask for a wildcard for Barcelona depending on his results. So vamos Fernando, and best of luck for the upcoming clay season!

Fernando defeated 7th seed Marin Cilic reached the quarterfinals at the Sony Ericsson Open, successfully defending his points from last year. Third time seemed to be the charm for Fernando, who had been defeated by Cilic twice in both their previous hard court meetings, but something was working right for Fernando today as he took a straight sets win in just under two hours, just as the sun was setting over Key Biscayne.

Tomrorow, Fernando and Feliciano will take on Tommy and Nico for a spot in the doubles semifinals. Fernando will play Tomas Berdych who took down top seed Roger Federer, for a spot in the semifinals.

Fernando survived a scare in his third round singles match today against Jurgen Melzer, 3-6, 7-6⁴, 6-1. The first two sets were very shaking, with Fernando opening the match with a pair of double faults, and Melzer easily taking the early break. Fernando twice had to serve to stay in the match, forcing a tiebreak in the second set that he won 7-4. Having rattled Melzer, Fernando raced out to a 5-0 lead, despite getting only 52% of his first serves in. Fernando had a match point on Melzer’s serve, but Melzer held to stay in the match, and gave Fernando the opportunity to serve it out, which he did, taking the third and deciding set 6-1. He next faces 7th seed Marin Cilic, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets. It’s a tricky match-up. Their head-to-head is 2-2, but Marin has won both their hard court meetings, including their most recent meeting last year at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, where he defeated Fernando 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The match is scheduled last on Grandstand court tomorrow evening.

Fernando and Feli (who lost his singles match earlier today) had a much smoother time in their doubles match which started about an hour and a half after Fernando won in singles. They knocked out the 6th seeds Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley, 6-1, 7-6⁴ They set up an all-Spanish affair next in the quarterfinals when they face off against Davis Cup teammates Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro, who earlier today dispatched top seeds Nestor/Zimonjic.