Fernando defeated Lithuanian qualifier Ricardis Berankis 6-3, 7-6(5), to advance to the semifinals of the SAP Open, where he’ll face Denis Istomin for a spot in the finals against either #1 seed Andy Roddick or #7 seed Sam Querrey.

The draw for next week’s Regions Morgan Keegan Championship was also released today. Fernando will face Jeremy Chardy in the first round! Vamos!

Also, the SAP Open twitter reports that Fernando will make his decision about whether or not to play Davis Cup after Memphis. He was dealing with a sciatic nerve injury several days ago and is playing through hamstring pain. Hopefully he’ll recover and be as close to 100% as possible for the upcoming hard court and clay Masters in the coming months. Vamos :)

Fernando defeated Benjamin Becker 7-5, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of the SAP Open. He’ll face Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis. Vamos Fernando!

Fernando defeated Yen-Hsun Lu today 6-3, 6-7⁶, 6-3, to advance to the second round of the SAP Open.

Listen to his audio interview below:

It may just be an exhibition match that won’t count in any official ATP stat sheet, but Fernando scored a big win last night against one of tennis’ all-time greats, Pete Sampras, defeating the retired legend 6-3, 7-6²

Pete joked with Nando before the tournament at a VIP banquet: “Just show some respect. I’m going to have to get to the net as much as I can—none of those long baseline exchanges. I think I can hold my own serving and volleying. Tonight I have no choice but to come in ‘til the cows come home. If he returns well and passes well, it could be a quick night.”

Pete also had some encouraging praise for Fernando after the match: “He’s tough. He’s the real deal. He could win a major.”

Fernando admitted to watching replays of the 1995 Australian Open final between Sampras and his idol Andre Agassi more than any other match – “probably a hundred times,” He got a chance to play Andre in 2004, but never Pete. “It was one of my goals to play against him one day.”

“He’s still serving so good, and of course, he’s not at the moment in the shape he was in as a professional, but that’s normal. For me it was just an experience to play with him… It was very special to play with him tonight.”

(via yahoo sports)

Fernando also appears to be playing with a new racquet. He’s switched his trusty Tecnifibre racquet for the new Yonex RDiS 200 model. No word yet on whether or not the change is permanent or not.

Fernando had a tough fourth round loss to Nikolay Davydenko 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6⁵, 3-6. After fighting back from a two set deficit to level the match, Fernando was broken halfway through the final set and just couldn’t manage to pull himself back into the match.

I am not really certain what words to use to describe that match (clusterfuck comes to mind) other than the fact that it was more about outlasting and making the least amount of errors possible. Fernando served a ridiculous 20 double faults and made 81 unforced errors before the match finally ended.

You can check out the match stats as well as a detailed match report over at TennisTalk. I wanted to have my own, but the match went on so late and if I want any hope of getting to class on time tomorrow morning, I’ll go to bed now :) Hopefully the AO website will post up a copy of Fernando’s presser, which I’ll post tomorrow, as well as additions to the gallery once they show up at the photo agencies. Fernando’s got a couple weeks off to rest and get his head on straight. He’ll be heading to San Jose, California to take part in the SAP Open (as well as an exhibition against Pete Sampras before the tournament!)

So Fer’s run at the 2010 Australian Open has come to an end, but the year is just getting started and there’s plenty more tennis to play. Vamos and best of luck, Fernando :)

F. VERDASCO/S. Koubek, 6-1, RET

An interview with: FERNANDO VERDASCO

Q. Is it disappointing that you didn’t get more match time, that the match finished early? Would you have liked to have a little bit more?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: For one part for sure. I want to play more to get more rhythm for the next round. If I win, of course. But it’s not bad also to win fast, no, and have one day even more to recover. Because the next round is gonna be so difficult against Davydenko.

Of course you never want one guy to play sick and to feel like this, no? But it’s also good and I have more rest, no, for important match in fourth round.

Q. Will you have to change your preparation for the next match in any way?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I will go now to practice.

Q. When did you notice that he was in trouble? Did you know at all?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: No, I didn’t know. I was just focus on myself. I didn’t know that he was sick for two days. You know, he just call the doctor and he retire straightaway.

So I didn’t know that he was like that.
—-

Fernando had a much easier match tonight against Ivan Sergeyev, with a straight sets victory 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 over the Ukranian qualifier. It was a very straight-forward win for Fernando, who broke Sergeyev’s serve right away in the first game of the first set and despite making a few small mistakes, cruised through the match, looking in great form. He’ll play Stefan Koubek next.

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.

Fernando started his 2010 season off in spectacular style with a win over three top players to take the title at the AAMI Classic in Kooyong. Battling the elements–the heat and a wild wind–he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3 to take the title and a new trophy for his mantleplace. Because Kooyong is just an exho, it doesn’t count with his official ATP tour titles, but a win is a win and this one should do wonders to boost Fernando’s confidence heading into the Australian Open next week.

Fernando scored his first win over a top-ten player in almost a year when he beat Novak Djokovic today 6-1, 6-2. Unfortunately I didn’t get to watch the match (my cousin had a baby earlier this week, and cute babies > tennis, sorry to say :p) but from what I’ve heard, Nando was in fine form and Novak in not-so-fine form. Still, a win is a win and even though this one, as an exhibition match, doesn’t count in their head-to-head, it’s still a pretty great win for Fernando and it should really boost his confidence going into the Australian Open next week!

Fernando will face the winning of tomorrow’s semifinal match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro.

Not many pictures from the match, but you can nab them from the gallery thumbnails to the right of this post :)

Also, some fun from Fernando’s first match against Fernando Gonzalez :)

(thanks Nadal News!)