Fernando Verdasco Carmona (born November 15, 1983 in Madrid) is a professional tennis player from Spain. He is currently one of the top Spanish tennis players, he performs well on all surfaces. Verdasco started playing tennis at four years of age and got a full-time coach when he was eight. Verdasco considers his forehand his best shot, plays left-handed and has a double-handed backhand. Andy Roddick has said he considers Verdasco's forehand the biggest in the game today.

He turned professional in 2001, finishing as world number 464. 2002 was a good year for him, as he won his first Futures category title in Spain F1 and was runner-up in Spain F3. He played his second career challenger in Segovia, where he reached the final after beating Belarusian Vladimir Voltchkov in the semifinals. He then reached two additional Challenger semifinals in Kiev and in Eckental, finishing the year in the top 200, at 173.

In 2003, Verdasco played his first Masters Series tournament (Miami Masters. He joined the main draw as a qualifier, and after defeating Karol Kucera and Max Mirnyi, Verdasco lost to countryman Carlos Moyà in the third round. After this good performance, he had a poor season on clay, losing in the first round of Wibmbledon against Finnish Jarkko Nieminen in five sets. Then, Verdasco played in Cincinnati, where he lost to Andy Roddick in straight sets. He reached the third round at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Thai Paradorn Srichaphan after defeating countryman Tommy Robredo in the first round and Italian Davide Sanguinetti in the second round.

After finishing in 2003 as 109th in the world (with a 15-8 record in challengers), he had a breakthrough in 2004, when he won his first ATP title in Valencia. He defeated defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semifinal and Albert Montañés in the final. He also reached the final in Acapulco, losing to Carlos Moya. His he also reached the quarterfinals in Halle and in 's-Hertogenbosch on grass. He reached the third round in two Masters Series: theHamburg Masters and the Madrid Masters. He reached the quarterfinals in Stockholm, the semifinals in Kitzbühel and won a doubles title in Stockholm (with countryman Feliciano López), ending the year 36th in the world.

In 2005 he defeated Andy Roddick twice, in Miami and in Rome. In Rome, the match was famous for Roddick being matchpoint up on Verdasco's serve and having the match end with a double fault from Verdasco, but Roddick claimed that the serve wasn't out and the match went on, with Verdasco winning. He also reached the quarters of Valencia (where he was defending the title), Rome and New Haven; the semis of Sankt Petersburg; and was finalist in Kitzbühel, where he lost to Argentine Gastón Gaudio. But Verdasco reached his first Grand Slam fourth round at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Jarkko Nieminen after defeating Serb Novak Đoković. His year-end ranking improved slightly to No. 33 in the world.

Fernando reached the fourth round of Wimbledon after beating Vince Spadea and German Benjamin Becker and also upsetting 3rd seed and former runner-up David Nalbandián in straight sets in the third round. Verdasco then lost to Czech Radek Štěpánek in five sets. At the U.S. Open, Fernando reached the third round, but lost to eventual runner-up Andy Roddick in five sets. In previous rounds, Fernando defeated Fabrice Santoro in four sets and Thiago Alves in three. Fernando then lost in the quarters of Palermo where he lost to Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo and then he lost to Ramírez Hidalgo again the following week in the first round of Metz. Verdasco didn't win any match in the rest of year, he lost to Italian Daniele Bracciali in Moscow, and then in the last two Masters Series tournaments of the year, he lost to Tim Henman in Madrid Masters and to Michael Llodra in Paris Masters. Verdasco finished the year ranked 35th on the ATP rankings.

In 2007, he lost to Serb Novak Đoković in the 4th round of the French Open. In the previous rounds of Roland Garros he beat Jérôme Haehnel in the 1st round, Dmitry Tursunov in the 2nd round and David Ferrer in the 3rd round. Before reaching the 4th round in the French Open, he lost in the first round in the 3 Masters Series tournaments on clay. He lost to Frenchman Richard Gasquet in both Monte Carlo Masters and Rome Masters, and to Czech Tomáš Berdych in Hamburg Masters. In the grass season, he lost in the 1st round in Queen's and he reached the 3rd round in Wimbledon, where he lost to 3rd seed Andy Roddick after beating American Bobby Reynolds in the 1st round and Italian Andreas Seppi in the 2nd round. At the Madrid Masters Verdasco cruised through to the second round with a win over Albert Montañés, beating him in straight sets but in second round he faced third seed Novak Đoković and after winning the first set, the Serb player won the second and the third sets by the same score: 6-3. At the St. Petersburg Open, Verdasco played some brilliant tennis to reach the final without losing a single set. En route to this final, he defeated Marin Čilić, who defeated Nikolay Davydenko early on, in the semifinal. However, his quest to win the title ended with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by Scot Andy Murray. Still, this great performance should raise Verdasco's position in the ATP rankings to 27 the next week.

*Verdasco supports Real Madrid football club. *Verdasco's ex-girlfriends are Argentine professional tennis player Gisela Dulko and Spanish model and actress Dafne Fernández.

* *Fernando Verdasco's unofficial site * Verdasco Recent Match Results * Verdasco World Ranking History * Fernando Verdasco statistics