Updated 08.33
RAFA NADAL CRASHED out in the first round of the Australian Open after losing a five-set thriller to his fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Verdasco reeled off six unanswered games in the final set to stun the fifth seed, 7-6 4-6 3-6 7-6 6-2.
It is only the second time that Nadal, 29, has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam. The other came against Steve Darcis of Belgium at Wimbledon 2013.
Verdasco, who came into this week’s tournament in Melbourne ranked 45th in the world, hit a remarkable 90 winners to Nadal’s 37.
He took the opening set of what would develop into a four hour, forty one minute epic, winning the tiebreaker, before Nadal bounced back to take the next two sets.
Verdasco again held his nerve to take a tie-breaker in the fourth but looked to have let Nadal off the hook when he was broken early in the deciding set, before rebounding with an astonishing six-game flurry to seal his progress.
Nadal’s exit wasn’t the only shock on Tuesday. Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams lost in straight sets to British number one Johanna Konta, 6-4 6-2.
But Andy Murray made it look easy as he beat German teen Alexander Zverev 6-1 6-2 6-3 to set up a second-round clash against Sam Groth.
