Fernando Verdasco takes on Sam Querrey in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open tonight.
Verdasco has had a fairly easy passage through to the third round. He received a first round bye and did not even have to play a full match in round two as the talented young Lithuanian Richard Berankis retired, trailing 7-5, 2-0.
Verdasco has had a mixed start to the year. He had a brilliant spell during the clay-court season last year which took him into the top ten but he has not really pushed on since. He lost tamely to Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open and although he since made the San Jose final, he was pipped by Milos Raonic in that match and again in Memphis the following week.
Querrey is another player who has failed to build on some promising results last year and unless he picks up his form he faces a big ranking drop over the next few months.
Querrey has suffered a series of first round and second round losses. However he looked fairly impressive in his 6-4, 6-4 second round win over Janko Tipsarevic and it could be the start of a turnaround for the American.
Verdasco has won their only previous match 6-4, 7-6 in New Haven two years ago.
Prediction: Verdasco in three
