Fernando Verdasco wishes his wife on her birthday with a heartfelt message
Fernando Verdasco recently penned a short but touching message for his wife Ana Boyer Preysler on her birthday.
Ana turned 34 on Tuesday, April 18. The Spanish tennis player and the television host tied the knot on December 7, 2017 after dating for five years. They have two sons — Miguel and Mateo.
The former World No. 7 took to social media to wish his wife and stated that he hoped to spend many more years by her side.
"Happy birthday to the most amazing woman in the world. I hope life gives me the gift of spending many more birthdays by your side. I love you," Fernando Verdasco wrote on Instagram.
Ana is the daughter of the late Spanish economist and politician Miguel Boyer and socialite and television host Isabel Preysler, who also happens to be the mother of singer Enrique Iglesias.
Fernando Verdasco is 0-5 in 2023
Fernando Verdasco, who will turn 40 in November this year, achieved his career-best ranking of No. 7 in April 2009. However, he has slipped to No. 244 this year and mostly plays on the ATP Challenger Tour. June 2021 was the last time the Spaniard was an ATP top 100 player.
In the 2023 season, he participated in five tour-level tournaments and faced first-round exits in all of them — the Australian Open, Dallas Open, Delray Beach Open, Qatar Open, and the Barcelona Open.
Turning pro in 2001, he won seven singles titles and had his fair share of memorable matches, like the 2009 Australian Open semifinal against Rafael Nadal. The 22-time Grand Slam champion defeated Verdasco 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-7(1), 6-4.
The 39-year-old had to wait seven years to get his revenge, eliminating Nadal in the first round of the 2016 Australian Open in yet another five-set thriller — 7-6, (6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. He managed to win three out of 20 matches against the Mallorcan, lost all seven encounters against Roger Federer, won four of his 15 matches against Novak Djokovic, and four out of 17 against Andy Murray.
Earlier this year, he weighed in on the dominance of the Big 4 during his peak.
“By the time I reached seventh in the rankings, the top four players in the rankings were winning practically every single tournament they entered," he said while speaking to ubitennis. “It was impossible for other players to think of lifting a major title, only [Marin] Cilic, [Juan Martin] del Potro, or Wawrinka managed to win a slam in that period. In almost 20 years and 80 slams played, it happened on three or four occasions.”
Verdasco remarked that the competition is more open today, calling the current landscape "fairer."
"Now there’s certainly more room for everyone, from a certain point of view it’s fairer. If you ask me as a player if I would have preferred to occupy seventh position today or in 2009, my answer is today," he added.
The 2009 Australian Open semifinal remains Verdasco's best result in a Grand Slam tournament.