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7/17/09 3:25 PM | Ricky Dimon
Fernando Verdasco retires in the second set of his Swedish Open quarterfinal match against Juan Monaco on Friday afternoon. Monaco will take on Tommy Robredo for a spot in the title match.
Juan Monaco reached the semifinals of the Catella Swedish Open on Friday afternoon when Fernando Verdasco retired from their quarterfinal clash midway through the second set. Monaco led convincingly 6-1, 3-1 before Verdasco called it quits 55 minutes into the encounter.
Verdasco had not been close to 100 percent physically since losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber 8-6 in the fifth set of a Davis Cup singles rubber last weekend in Spain. To make matters worse for the world No. 9, he struggled for more than three hours against Daniel Koellerer in his Bastad opener on Thursday after receiving an opening-round bye as the top seed. Verdasco even saved a match point at 4-5 in the third set before outlasting Koellerer 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-5.
He clearly did not have enough time to recover before doing battle with Monaco. Verdasco surrendered serve in a grueling first game of the match and he was never competitive thereafter. Monaco never faced a break point in the opening frame of play and consistently abused his opponent's second serve.
Struggling with his movement, and in all other areas of the game, Verdasco could not make it through set two. Monaco added one break and dropped just two points in two service games before the premature end.
With the victory, Monaco extends his head-to-head record against Verdasco to 5-2, including 4-1 on clay. The 61st-ranked Argentine will now face Tommy Robredo in Saturday's semifinals.
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Should be fine for a return to hard courts. He just couldn't recover after losing to Kohlschreiber 8-6 in the fifth and the needing more than three hours to get past Koellerer.
RickyDimon , 7/17/09 5:53 PM
Yeah, hardcourts is where he's really going to need to prove himself. I watched his matches against both Murray and Nadal at the AO, and I've never seen such energy. I'd love to see him play like that again soon. Extremely entertaining to watch.
-Arvis
Arvis , 7/17/09 6:30 PM
either way, juan has competed reasonably well this year where ferna also has not failed. indeed in the very beginning when things were more than a 100 percent worse eg the oz open against tougher opponents, he was sensational and runner-up at the newly opened brisbane international open. this time of the year absolutely, players tend to become quite tired. all the best pico for the semis against another favo of mine, robristo..
steppo , 7/18/09 1:37 AM
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This is a shame. After the AO, I really thought that Verdasco could keep up his amazing level of play, but he seems to have fizzled a bit of late.
-Arvis
Arvis , 7/17/09 4:28 PM