Verdasco downs fourth seed Murray

Spain's Fernando Verdasco has knocked fourth seed Andy Murray of Great Britain out
of the Australian Open.
In the upset of the men's singles championship, Verdasco, the 15th seed, beat Murray
2-6 6-1 1-6 6-3 6-4.
He will now play the winner of tonight's fourth-round match between Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga of France and James Blake from the United States.
Murray's defeat means the 73-year grand slam drought for British men will continue
at least until the French Open.
Also, World No.1 Rafael Nadal has swept aside 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez to claim a
place in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
Nadal overcame a few minor stumbles to beat the Chilean 6-3 6-2 6-4.
He will now play sixth seed Gilles Simon in the quarters after the Frenchman beat
compatriot Gael Monfils who was forced out of their fourth-round match by injury
earlier on Monday.
Nadal established his superiority from the opening game, only to see Gonzalez break
serve and threaten to make a match of it.
But the top-ranked Spaniard re-asserted himself and was rarely threatened for the
rest of the one hour 55 minute match.
Meanwhile, Juan Martin del Potro has the opportunity to take his tennis to the next
level in his quarter-final clash with Roger Federer on Tuesday.
Del Potro, the eighth seed, plays Roger Federer who for the first time in five
years, is not the No.1 seed at the Open.
As a quarter-final should be, this is a pivotal match of the championship.
In Federer's case, it might be a little more.
It is four-and-a-half years and 18 grand slams since he failed to progress to at
least the semi-finals in the four majors.
But in the fourth round against Tomas Berdych, he came as close as he could to
spoiling that record.
Berdych, the 20th seed, took the first two sets from the world No.2 and had him in
trouble in the third - until he started thinking about winning.
Del Potro was the form player during the second half of last year, winning four
tournaments and making the season-ending Masters Cup.
He is also seven years younger than Federer and had a relatively sedate four-setter
in the fourth round.
The possibility of an unfavourable outcome has occurred to the three-time Australian
champion.
"Well, I mean, he's had a great run after Wimbledon ... I think he won four
tournaments in a row," Federer said.
"They were not the biggest tournaments in the world, but still, he was able to
dominate some good players.
"I think he beat Roddick and other players like Tommy Haas on hard court, that's a
great effort.
"Then he backed it up by playing well at the (US) Open.
"For a young guy to cope with the pressure and make it to the Masters in the end, I
think, was a great effort from his side.
"It's going to be an interesting match for me, I'm excited to be playing against him."