The Spanish Ferdinand Verdascoa semifinalist at the 2009 Australian Open, came from behind to defeat this Saturday by 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) to the Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran and win the ATP Challenger in Monterrey, northern Mexico.
Verdasco, who showed good sporting form a couple of weeks ago at the ATP 500 in Acapulco, was surprised in the first set in which Gunneswaran, ranked 278, broke his serve in the ninth game to win 6-4.
Patient, with the experience of having been among the top 10 in the world in 2009 when he was seventh in the world, in the second sleeve Verdasco showed superiority with the service; he did not give any break points to the rival and in the fourth eighth game he broke for a 6-3 victory.
The third set passed with the emotion of what it meant, the championship decision. Verdasco started aggressively, he broke the Asian’s serve in the first ‘game’, but the persistent Gunneswaran, 32, broke in the 10th to make it 5-5.
In the twelfth game, Verdasco needed to bring out the mastery of his 38 years and recovered from a 0-30 deficit to cause the tie break.
Verdasco, more serene, made a couple of ‘mini breaks’ and headed for victory, the eighth of his professional careerfirst in a challenge and first in the last three years.
The Monterrey Challenge was the epilogue of several weeks of high-level tennis in Mexico, with the Acapulco Open, won by the Spaniard Rafael Nadalthe Zapopan tournament of the WTA, in which the American Sloane Sthepens reigned and the Monterrey Open of the WTA, in which the Canadian Leylah Fernández won.
Although it will be an exhibition, on March 21 the Russians Daniil Medvedev, number one in the world, will play in Mexico City. and Andrey Rublev, seventh in the ranking, another tennis party.
