·
World no.2 Novak Djokovic was stopped once again by no.6 seed Fernando Verdasco. The Spaniard defeated him in three sets 6-7(4), 6-3, 4-6 in 3 hours and 17 minutes in quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
Verdasco made a break in the seventh game, but was broken back when serving for the set in the tenth game. Djokovic earned three break points and converted the third to equalise to 5-5. The Spaniard broke once again already in the next game, but Nole fought back immediately, so the set went into a tiebreaker. No.6 seed made two mini-breaks, one more than Novak and won it 7-4 after 1 hour and 29 minutes!
Djokovic was leading 4-1 in the second set with a double break. Verdasco broke back once, but Novak capitalised on his break/set point in the ninth game and took the set 6-3.
A break in the third game of the final set was enough for the Spaniard to win it 6-4.
Statistics: aces (6-2), double faults (7-3), winners (40-33), unforced errors (46-40).
Novak is a defending champion next week in his hometown Belgrade at “Serbia Open 2010 powered by Telekom Srbija” (May 3-9, 2010), an ATP World Tour 250 event.
