Fernando defeated Dudi Sela earlier today, 6-1, 6-2, in just over an hour to reach the third round and set up a meeting with the 23th seed, Jurgen Melzer. Fernando also debuted a version the new kit he’ll be wearing for next month’s clay season. You can see the white version he wore today as well as the blue version he’ll be wearing starting next month here.

Because of a rain delay on Friday, Fernando & Feliciano’s doubles match was postponed to Sunday morning and they are second up on Court 1. Hope to be able to live tweet via livescores. No pictures, sadly, because I won’t be at the tournament tomorrow, but best of luck to them both for tomorrow!

No doubles win for the boys tonight, as they lost in the second round to compatriots Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez 4-6, 6-7⁵

It was a tough loss, as they were up 4-1 in both sets and had several chances at break points, and once during the second set, a set point, but couldn’t convert.

So it’s on to Miami for both Feli and Fernando (Feli lost his third round match with Robin Soderling) where they will play doubles together as well as singles. So vamos and best of luck! I’ll be in Miami for a couple days (it’s my Spring Break next week, woo!) so hopefully I’ll be able to catch at least their first round doubles match :) Til next week!

Fernando suffered a surprisingly difficult defeat today in the third round at the BNP Paribas Open to Tomas Berdych, with a 0-6, 3-6 loss. Not sure if he was just having a bad day, if there’s some sort of injury, if Berdych just outplayed him, or some combination of the three. The loss is an especially tough loss considering the withdrawal of Nikolay Davydenko, who would’ve been the expected fourth round opponent.

Indian Wells isn’t over yet for Fernando, as he still has his doubles match with Feli against Rafa & Marc tomorrow, and unless the singles matches before it run too long, it will be on Center Court, so there should be a stream! Feli also has his singles match tomorrow against Robin Soderling, so vamos and good luck boys :)

(No pictures yet, hopefully some will show up tomorrow!)

Feli and Fernando scored a straight sets win over wild card entries Mardy Fish and Mario Ancic, 7-6⁹, 6-3 in their first doubles match together since the clinched the Davis Cup title for Spain in last year’s final.

No pictures (there probably won’t be any, considering the match wasn’t on a televised court) but here’s the match stats courtesy of the ATP’s live scores page.

They set up a second round encounter with fellow Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez. Both Feliciano and Fernando advanced to the third round as well. Fernando will play Tomas Berdych tomorrow on Stadium Court 2, while Feli has a rematch against Robin Soderling on Tuesday, which is likely when their doubles match will also be. So vamos, boys!

Fernando got his first Masters 1000 event off to a good start with a 6-4, 6-1 win over qualifier Ramón Delgado. He advances to the third round where he’ll face either Tomas Berdych or Florent Serra, likely on Monday. Additionally he’ll probably kick off his doubles play tomorrow. He and Feliciano will take on Mario Ancic and Mardy Fish in the first round of the doubles draw.

Even without their three top players, Spain pulled out an impressive 4-1 win over Spain in this year’s Davis Cup first round tie. Despite not having Fernando, or Rafa, Juan Carlos and Feliciano, Spain still pulled together a formidable team, with David Ferrer and Tommy Robredo sharing the leadership role and Nicolas Almagro and Marcel Granollers, who made his Davis Cup debut as a player in the doubles rubber. With the win, Spain continues its impressive 21 consecutive tie wins on clay courts, and 19 consecutive wins in home ties.

The Armada will face France, in France, in the quarterfinals in July.

Fernando suffered a tough loss to Argentine Juan Monaco during his quarterfinal match at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, with a straight set defeat 5-7, 3-6. Fernando advanced to the finals in his only prior visit to Acapulco in 2004.

Fernando previously survived a first round scare against Italian Fabio Fognini, losing the first set 2-6 before coming back to win the match 6-4, 6-0. He had a fairly routine straight set victory against Lukasz Kubot, 6-4, 6-3, befoer reaching the quarterfinals and losing to Monaco.

Fernando’s title-winning euphoria came to a bit of a halt today with a surprise first round loss to Jeremy Chardy of France, 6-7⁴, 3-6 in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis.

“With just one day in between matches and in different conditions and not being able to practice on the stadium court before the match, it was difficult,” he said. “And it was difficult for me to get the timing. But he played a great match. He served really good.”

It’s a rough loss, but on the plus side, it gives Fernando almost two weeks off to rest, recover and heal his sciatic nerve injury before the upcoming March-April Masters tournaments. It also means that it may give him time to make himself available to play in Spain’s first round Davis Cup tie against Switzerland on March 5-7.

Fernando won his fourth career title and along with it a major win over a top ten player when he beat Andy Roddick at the SAP Open in San Jose, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4!

“I served much better in the second and third set than the first set. Also, I was more aggressive; I started to push him a little bit more, tried to play more inside the court and move toward the net in the second set.

“I know against the Top 10 guys it’s always tough matches,” said Verdasco. “Last year in a lot of them I was really close and I didn’t win. I was a little bit unlucky in the matches, like in London against Federer, del Potro, Murray. Those were three matches I could’ve won and I lost all of them.

“Of course it’s a match that I hope is going to give me confidence. It was a really hard final for me, this one against Andy here, in his country, in the U.S., and I’m so happy that I was able to beat him here after the last times he beat me. It’s special for me and I’m happy that I did it.”

Fernando’s victory over Andy Roddick ends a 15-match losing streak against top 10 players. His last win against a top ten player was in the fourth round of the 2009 Australian Open against then world number 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Fernando defeated Denis Istomin 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to advance to the finals of the SAP Open, where he’ll face either #1 seed Andy Roddick or #7 seed Sam Querrey. It’s his first final of the year and his tenth career final.

Some more information about Fernando’s injury as well. He’s been suffering from a sciatic nerve flare-up since his match in Kooyong against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and as a result is dealing with some hamstring discomfort in his right leg.

“It’s not like big pain, but it’s not nice, also, the feeling, no? I’m doing all I can,” he said. “I cannot do anything else. I just hope that it’s going to be gone.”

Due to his injury, Fernando may not be able to play in Spain’s first round Davis Cup match next month against Switzerland, but even without him and Rafael Nadal, who will likely sit the tie out, Spain still has a whole host of players to carry the Spanish banner. “Sometimes you are unable to play, and it’s important to have many good players. When someone is unable to play, the other one can replace them and play at the same level.”

(via inside tennis)