Apparently, the late Vitas Gerulaitis once said “No one beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row” when he claimed a victory over Jimmy Connors.  In those days, it was hard to find head-to-head stats, so Vitas may have been guessing how many times Connors had beaten him.  In any case, good friend, Bjorn Borg did beat him at least 17 times in a row.

Fernando Verdasco must have felt like Vitas did.  He had lost to Rafael Nadal thirteen times in a row.  His best chance was probably 2009 Australian Open when Verdasco upset Murray in the quarters then pushed Nadal to the brink in a five-set marathon of heavy hitting.  Verdasco would go on to have a very good 2009 and half of 2010 before fading once again.  Few people beat Nadal on clay, and numbers suggest Nadal was off his game for some reason.  Nadal usually wins a large percentage of first serves despite lacking a booming serve, but stats say he won barely half his first serves and under half of his second serves.

It’s rare for Nadal to lose on clay.  He’s lost less than 20 times on clay and most of that happened early in his career.  He’s complained about the blue surface, but it may be wise for Nadal to lose, despite his record.  With the Olympics coming up, pressing for a win at Madrid may not be wise.  Even so, Nadal was up two breaks in the third and could still not secure the victory, which is unusual for Nadal.

Murray is already skipping Madrid due to an injury, so he seems to be opting to save himself.

Other results.  The French didn’t have a good day.  Dolgopolov upset Tsonga in three sets while Berdych crushed Monfils in straight sets.  del Potro also had a comfortable win over Cilic.

Federer played yesterday, but will play against Gasquet today (as this is being written, he’s on court).