Verdasco must get a lot of heartache playing Nadal.  He’s never beaten him in 11 attempts, and for a while, he was struggling to win sets.  But if Verdasco had a chance to upset Nadal, today was it.  Nadal had burned his fingers at a dinner handling a hot plate.  He had lost to Dodig despite many break opportunities.  He got past Benneteau, but was broken as he served out the set, before breaking and holding for the match.

Verdasco, alas, has regressed since the year following his best result, the Australian Open semis in 2009.  Verdasco’s strength is also his weaknes: he has always been a desire to go for big shots even at inopportune times.  Verdasco’s decline came shortly after his best play on clay, back in 2010, when he beat Djokovic twice.

Verdasco managed to get an early break in the first set with aggressive play and nervous hitting by Nadal.  He nearly secured a second break, but wasn’t able to do so.  Nadal broke back, and the first set went to a tiebreak, which he won.

The second set saw each player break once, and it too, went to a tiebreak.  Verdasco got an early lead, but then it got tied up, then Verdasco got out again and won the second set tiebreak.  The third set also had one break for each player.  When Verdasco got down 5-1, 2 mini-breaks, it seemed over, but Verdasco held his own serve, then got two points off a nervous Rafa.  Verdasco never got to match point, because he would often play too aggressive and give up easy points.

He would often win points when he was more patient.  Indeed, when he looped the balls back, Nadal played more passively and often caused his own errors.  This was a match where both men appeared nervous.  Nadal didn’t seem that confident playing aggressively, meanwhile Verdasco would play aggressive and make too many errors which is what he usually does.  Nadal was ripe for the picking, but Verdasco did a fair bit to hand this very tight match to Rafa.

At roughly the same time the Rafa match got started, which was about 11 AM, Murray was taking on Alex Bogomolov.  Bogo had beaten them the last time they played in the opening round of Miami, and that win may have pushed Bogo to play his best tennis.  Bogo is not a youngster.  He had nearly given up tennis, going to a teaching gig, before coming back on tour.

The two played close for a few games, but then Murray broke twice and took the first set quickly.  Murray was up a break early in the second set, but eventually got broken back.  The two would exchange 3 more breaks of serve, but Murray would break late in the second and win this match in less than 2 hours, nearly 2 hours less than Nadal and Verdasco.

Mardy Fish is still on a roll and got one break in each set to top Richard Gasquet, 7-5, 7-5.  Tomas Berdych has a surprisingly easy match over Almagro, 6-2, 6-2.  Berdych is a streaky player, and when he gets hot, he can look dominant.

Fish will take on Rafael Nadal in the next round.  Nadal is supposed to play doubles with partner Marc Lopez later today and says he plans to play.

Still to play, Djokovic to play Stepanek, Federer to play Blake, and Monfils to play Kohlschreiber.