Dubai: Fernando Verdasco eased into his first ATP 500 singles final at the Dubai Tennis Championships with a tough 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1 win over Robin Haase of the Netherlands late on Friday.
Now 33, Verdasco is one of the older tennis players on the ATP World Tour with his best this season coming in neighbouring Doha at the Qatar Open where he fell to former world No. 1 and ultimate champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
“This has been an amazing week for me and I hope it can continue the same way for just one more day tomorrow,” Verdasco said after his two hours and 15 minutes match.
“I am simply unbelievably happy to be in the final. This is the reason why we all practice so hard every day and to be in a final of this stature is a great feeling indeed,” he added.
This week he has had a wonderful turn of form with sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut and fourth seed Gael Monfils the two seeds to cave in to him.
Playing before a near-packed centre court on Friday that was pretty much the case as the higher-ranked Spaniard had to recover from a break down to win a tight tie-breaker 7-5 for the opening set.
In the second set, the Spaniard broke back in the seventh to level off an early break from his Dutch opponent. But Haase was far from finished as he clinched a decisive second break in the 12th to win 7-5 and take it to a deciding third.
“My game has started improving from the start of the week and I hope I can maintain this momentum for one more day,” Verdasco said.
“I’ve had to push very hard throughout this week and one more day won’t hurt too much. I am now going to disconnect from tennis and just try and recover for the final,” he added.
The Spaniard did not mind either Andy Murray or Lucas Pouille as his opponent. “Basically, I’ve got nothing to lose as both of them are ranked higher than me. I want to keep my head up and just try and win the final,” he promised.
Last night’s win helped Verdasco nose ahead to 4-3 in career meetings against his Dutch opponent. The two played each other twice last year with the Spaniard coming through as winner on both occasions — in the quarter-finals at the Bucharest Open on clay and in the first round of the ATP Paris Masters.
Verdasco had to wait for the winner of the second semi-final between top seed and tournament favourite Murray and Frenchman Pouille that was being played later on Friday.
(Men’s singles semi-final) Fernando Verdasco bt Robin Haase 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1
