Fernardo Verdasco mocked in #10yearchallenge by tennis fans

The #10YearChallenge which has swamped the internet is producing a regular stream of gold from the tennis fraternity.Unfortunately for Spaniard Fernando Verdasco it wasn’t a great result.

Serena Williams consoles a distraught Dayana Yastremska of the Ukraine after winning the match on day six of the Australian Open.

The #10YearChallenge which has swamped the internet is producing a regular stream of gold from the tennis fraternity.

Novak Djokovic got in on the act of a sharing picture of himself from 10 years ago compared to one from today, choosing to go for pics of him in his budgie smugglers.

Unfortunately for Spaniard Fernando Verdasco he got some help from the online punters with his challenge focusing on two double faults a decade apart.

His 2019 entry was the double-fault he served up on his second match-point in the fourth set of his third round encounter with No. 6 seed Marin Cilic.

#10yearchallenge nightmare for Fernando Verdasco.
Double faulted at match point vs Rafa in 2009.
Double faulted at match point vs Cilic in 2019.
Source - @reddit #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/rJZbtcAZHM

— Herald Sun Sport (@heraldsunsport) January 19, 2019

Verdasco never recovered from the error, going on to lose the fourth set tie-break and then the fifth set.

Back in 2009 Verdasco was part of an epic Australian Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal which at the time was the longest match in the tournament’s history, taking five hours and 14 minutes.

The problem was it ended on a double-fault from Verdasco which handed Nadal the fifth set 6-4.

Kimberly Birrell currently shares a car with her mother so all the focus after her financially lucrative run to the third round of the Australian Open was about buying a new set of wheels.

DAY SIX: FOLLOW RESULTS, SCORES, NEWS FROM THE AUS OPEN

PURE AGONY: TV CAMERAS WENT TOO FAR

COMMENTARY GOLD: MIC’D UP NICK BLOWS AWAY FANS

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD: SERENA RENEWS CALL FOR EQUALITY

The wild card from the Gold Coast pocketed $155,000 for her breakthrough performances at Melbourne Park last week but there’s a specific fixture she wants on her new vehicle.

It appears Birrell’s weakness in the driver’s seat is reverse parking.

“That’s (buying a car) definitely going to be on the agenda, though, in the next couple of weeks as soon as I get home,” Birrell said after being knocked out by former Open champion Angelique Kerber.

Angelique Kerbe is congratulated by Kimberly Birrell after their third round match.

“But, yeah, we’ve been talking about it a little bit. I definitely need a smaller car with the reversing camera because I need all the help I can get with parking.”

Birrell had some superstar supporter on Friday night with Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson making a special trip from the Gold Coast to be courtside.

Pearson organised for one of Birrell’s close friends, heptathlete Casidhe Simmons, to be a surprise guest at the biggest match of her life.

Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki might he lost to Maria Sharapova but she didn’t miss the Russian in her post-match interview.

WOZNIACKI WHACK DOESN’T MISS MARIA

Maria Sharapova has been enemy No. 1 on the women’s circuit for most of her career but that status was further enhanced after her drug ban.

She admitted earlier this week that she doesn’t spend a lot of time in the locker room and it’s pretty clear she doesn’t have a lot of interest in mending any bridges.

After being taken down by the Russian, defending champion Caroline Wozniacki was quizzed about her relationship with Sharapova.

“I think our terms are the same as they have always been,” she said.

“I think she doesn’t really talk to anybody and just, you know, has her team and has her own thing. And that’s that.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas visits the Hellenic Republic food truck of celebrity chef George Calombaris for a souvlaki at Melbourne Park.

GREEK STAR: I’M JUST WAITING ON A FRIEND

It’s fair to say Stefanos Tsitsipas has made a lot of new friends over the past week.

The 20-year-old has Melbourne’s Greek community — which is the biggest anywhere in the world outside of Athens — in a spin given his exciting run to the fourth round where he’ll play defending champion Roger Federer.

While his popularity has been confirmed with a souvlaki named in his honour at Lonsdale Street institution Stalactites, Tsitsipas has revealed he actually feels like a loner in the locker room.

“I was shy when I was a kid but not any more,’ he said. “But not many of the players want to be friends on the tour. That’s an issue, you know, unless you speak the same language.

“That’s why you see these Spaniards, Latin Americans, hang out with each other. Then you have, I don’t know, Asian people with each other.”

HEARTBREAKING LOSS A HARD WATCH

The heartbreak of losing was unexpectedly captured by a corridor camera inside the bowels of Melbourne Park on Friday night.

Croatia’s Petra Martic didn’t even make it back to the locker room before she was overcome with emotion after losing a hard-fought third round match against No. 5 seed Sloane Stephens.

Instead she collapsed in a corner next to a pot plant and cried her eyes out into a towel.

Martic had been up 3-1 in both sets which she ended up losing in tie-breaks.

ARISE KING JAMES

If you’re going to go with a post-match celebration theme, copying LeBron James is a good starting point to win over fans.

American Frances Tiafoe, who turns 21 on Sunday, is a major fan of the best basketballer in the world and has made a habit of producing a LeBron-style celebration after a big win.

He delivered again after defeating Andreas Seppi in the third round and was happy to talk about his idol afterwards.

“What don’t you like about LeBron? Not just an unbelievable athlete, but what he does outside playing basketball,” Tiafoe said.

“The school he made, putting 50 mill into that, that’s unheard of. He’s an absolute icon. Everything he brings, how he carries himself. Never having trouble with the media, never done anything wrong.

“He’s a superstar for a reason. He’s LeBron James for a reason.”

IF IT WASN’T TRUE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE IT

A horse named after Bernard Tomic was scheduled to run on Saturday but was scratched due to poor training.

We’re not making this up.

The Patrick Payne-trained Tomic — a three-year-old gelding by All Too Hard out of Mix Bux — was entered in the opening race at Camperdown for his first race start.

Given the controversy surrounding Tomic at the Australian Open, connections of the racehorse were forced to post information of the scratching on social media given the public interest.

Price Bloodstock wrote the following message on Twitter: “Apologies to all: After putting very little effort in to his final gallop, Tomic will be scratched from Camperdown and sent for a spell.”

Many would say, the tennis player needs to follow suit.

Serena Williams consoles a tearful Dayana Yastremska after their match.

GRAND

Serena Williams still has some ground to make up after last year’s US Open outburst but she won back some points with a classy response to seeing her young Ukrainian opponent in tears after the match. The GOAT embraced Dayana Yastremska and gave her some calming words of advice.

SLAM

Bux parties at the tennis. First of all drinking warm beer in plastic cups isn’t the way we’d embrace the occasion and wearing large inflatable dolls on centre court is also a questionable decision.

THE WHISPER

Which South Melbourne gym has become a magnet for hoops-loving tennis types who have been getting down en masse for some secret workouts?