Fernando Verdasco celebrates huge milestone with great performance in Rome
The 35-year-old Fernando Verdasco has been one of the most consistent players on the Tour in the last 15 years, entering the top-100 in March 2004 and staying there ever since! The Spaniard has won more than 530 matches on the ATP Tour, 106 at Grand Slams and 127 at Masters 1000 level, lifting seven ATP titles from 23 finals. A left-hander with booming forehand and the excellent overall package has not been able to make an extra step in his game and challenge the players from the top regularly, scoring 28 top-10 wins from 132 encounters against the rivals from the elite group.
Despite that, Fernando was world no. 7 in 2009 after reaching the Australian Open semi-final where he lost to Rafael Nadal after an epic battle and currently holds the third-longest run with consecutive weeks in the top-100 behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Entering Rome with a mediocre 11-10 score, Verdasco played on a high level to grab three wins over Kyle Edmund, Dominic Thiem and Karen Khachanov, advancing into the first Masters 1000 quarter-final since Paris 2017 where Rafael Nadal defeated him 6-4, 6-0. Alongside notable result, Fernando is celebrating a huge milestone this week, becoming only the fourth player in the Open era with 400 ATP tournaments played!
Making an ATP debut in Estoril 17 years ago, Verdasco played 13 events in the following 2003 when he turned 20 and embraced packed calendar year after year to find himself on this exclusive list with Fabrice Santoro, Feliciano Lopez and Mikhail Youzhny who has played 418 ATP tournaments. Between 2004-18, Verdasco competed in at least 20 ATP events, counting to 28 in 2008 and 2018 and never missing the action for a more extended period due to injuries. Rome is the 11th ATP tournament for Verdasco in 2019 and he should catch Youzhny in the first half of 2020, having no retirement plans as he still competes on a high level, good enough to remain in the top-50 for at least a year or two and maybe challenge Lopez and Santoro who are the leaders in this category. The number of ATP tournaments for Fernando Verdasco per season:
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2HrHjlO
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