Ferrer Ends Verdasco Run

World No. 17 David Ferrer brought to an end Fernando Verdasco’s stellar clay-court run Saturday as he reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over his fellow Spaniard Saturday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Victory for Ferrer avenged the defeat he suffered to Verdasco in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell last week. Verdasco went on to win the title in Barcelona, having reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (l. to Nadal) a week earlier, and had won 12 of his past 13 matches coming into his 10th clash with Ferrer.

World No. 9 Verdasco looked to be well on his way to reaching a third successive ATP World Tour final as he broke serve twice to race to a 5-1 lead. However, the effects of having taken three hours and 18 minutes to defeat Novak Djokovic in Friday’s quarter-finals began to take their toll on Verdasco and, coupled with much improved play from Ferrer, Verdasco’s lead began to slip away rapidly.
Ferrer reined in the errors that had cost him in the early stages and exposed Verdasco’s fatigue by making the Madrileño work hard for every point as he won six successive games to steal the first set.

Ferrer’s intensity did not relent in the second set and he quickly established a 2-0 lead. There was a brief second wind for Verdasco, who showed flashes of the excellence that has propelled him to such heights in the past three weeks to immediately break back. However, Ferrer quickly regained the upper hand as Verdasco tired rapidly in the latter stages and the Valencia native sealed victory in 90 minutes.

"I'm happy because I'm playing very good this season and I think this match was a bit strange," said Ferrer. "The first set was a bit difficult but it was the same for him and he gave me some opportunities that I played and so, in the second set, I played more relaxed and it was easier."

"Until 5-1 things were going okay for me and also he wasn't playing his best and made some mistakes," said Verdasco. "Later, perhaps he saw that I was tired, not from 5-1 but since I got up this morning. He started to play better and became more solid on the court, and what happened, happened.

"The match yesterday was long and very physical against Novak and I was feeling good mentally but my body wasn't feeling the same as before and so I was slower and with less power. Against a player like David, yes I was 5-1, but I was making some mistakes and I wasn't playing a good game."

Having fallen at the semi-final stage four times in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, including in Rome in 2005 (l. to Nadal), Ferrer will contest his first final against countryman and four-time champion Rafael Nadal.

The 28-year-old Ferrer has been in exemplary form through the first four months of the 2010 ATP World Tour season and leads the tour with a 29-8 match record, including a tour-best 23-3 mark on clay.

He and Juan Carlos Ferrero dominated the Latin American “Golden Swing”, with Ferrer finishing runner-up to his countryman in Buenos Aires before avenging that loss a week later to capture his eighth ATP World Tour in Acapulco. He has also reached three semi-finals, including the past two weeks in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.