Tipsarevic saw the finish line but couldn't cross it and Verdasco robbed the Serbian of an entry ticket into the third round at Melbourne Park.
Janko Tipsarevic and Fernando Verdasco meet in the second round of the 2011 Australian Open on Wednesday. Tipsarevic, who took the first two sets off of the Spaniard, looked the winner in the match for quite some time and the biggest upset of the early days of the 2011 Melbourne Park draw seemed to be in the making.
Tipsarevic had match points on his serve in the 4th set but as is often the case when a player barely in the top 50 plays a top 10 player, Tipsarevic was not able to put the superior player away despite holding the tremendous edge.
Verdasco took all the points in what could have been a close 4th set tiebreaker and then the 5th set saw Verdasco totally assert himself as he crushed Tipsarevic 6-0.
We've seen the Serbian feign threatening play in Grand Slams before only to fall short of doing significant damage and surely his loss to Verdasco in the Australian Open 2nd round is one of the worst losses of his career. But for Verdasco an opportunity to improve on his result from last season remains alive as he advances to meet Kei Nishikori of Japan in the third round.
Nishikori is a talented and young player on tour who struggled with injury in 2010 but is looking to take strides in 2011.
