Age is just a number for world No.39 Fernando Verdasco as he relishes his 16th year on the ATP Tour.
Since making his debut at the 2003 Wimbledon championships, the 34-year-old has enjoyed success during an era where Spanish tennis has been dominated by Rafael Nadal. Reaching a high of 7th in the Emirates rankings back in 2009 and winning six titles on the ATP Tour. Despite his age, he has no plans of hanging up his racket just yet. Verdasco is currently the tenth oldest player in the top 100.
“Tennis has always been my life since I was a baby. I always loved this sport. I always love to play.” He told reporters in Indian Wells.
“Of course you always have some crisis in your life that you just — you just want to go on a beach and just relax some days with friends.
“But actually, when I’m away for maybe a week, maybe 10 days, I miss it. And then I just want to go back to the court, to the gym, and work and try to keep improving and working hard to stay at the top level and being able to fight against the best players in the world.”
Despite the trend of players playing later into their careers, this season has already seen rising stars make their mark on the tour. 21-year-old Hyeon Chung reached the semifinals of the Australian Open. Meanwhile, this week’s BNP Paribas Open saw a quartet of youngsters make a winning start in the men’s draw. Felix Auger-Aliassime (17), Denis Shapovalov (18), Alex De Minaur (18) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (19) all triumphed in the first round.
Speaking about the rise of the next generation, Verdasco is relishing the challenge they pose to him. Explaining that it motives him to improve his game further.
“Now I’m 34 and I have to fight against players 21, 22, 23 that are much younger. They have much less miles or kilometres in their legs. And I just have to work really hard and keep that motivation high to be able to win matches.”
Verdasco’s mentality brought him success on Saturday in Indian Wells. Taking on third seed Grigor Dimitrov, he stunned the 26-year-old Bulgarian 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3. Heading into the clash, the Spaniard had a 1-10 record against top 10 opposition at Indian Wells. Prior to Dimitrov, he also defeated Richard Gasquet (who was ranked ninth at the time) during the 2009 tournament.
“It is amazing always the feeling when you come (to) one tournament like this in a stadium with good atmosphere against one of the top players in the world. You’re able to do your job and have a good day and win the match.” He said about the win
In the third round Verdasco will play Next Gen star Taylor Fritz, who was four-years-old when he made his tour debut at the 2002 Estoril Open. He leads their head-to-head 1-0.
