Top 5 active tennis players with the most 5th set wins
Winning a match in the fifth set is the ultimate test of any player's mental strength, stamina and endurance. When a best-of-five-set match enters a decider, exhaustion (both physical and mental) begins to set in, as the mind and body both begin to wear down.
It is when skill and talent cede centre-stage to resolve and stamina, as both players dig deep into their innermost recesses of physical and mental reserves in an effort to outlast the each other and haul themselves over the finish-line.
The best-of-five-set format is what separates the men from the boys. The beauty of the format is best encapsulated in the fact that a player may be good enough to win in three or four sets, but may not necessarily fare as well if a match happens to goes the distance.
To a casual fan this might appear like a statistical oddity, as in any case the one who wins three sets also wins the match. But professional players know that it is a different ball game when a match enters a fifth set.
There have been numerous instances when a player who executes better for the most part of the first three sets is unable to close out the match, and then it becomes anybody's game in the fifth. In the one-set shootout, the player who serves first is generally considered to have an advantage as the receiver is always under scoreboard pressure.
There are five players in the Open Era who have played 50 or more fifth-set matches, and all of them have at least 30 fifth-set wins. Romanian great Ilie Nastase, with 39 fifth-set wins, leading the Open Era group as well as the all-time list.
Let us now meet the five active players who have won the most fifth-set matches in their careers.
#5 Fernando Verdasco (25-23)
Fernando Verdasco's 25-23 fifth-set record places him at 27th place in the all-time list. The Spanish southpaw, who made his professional debut in 2001, last played a fifth-set match at the US Open first round this year - where he lost to South Korean Hyeon Chung.
Verdasco's last victory in a fifth-set match came against Kyle Edmund in the Wimbledon second round, where the Spaniard overturned a two-set deficit to take the win.
Earlier in the season, Verdasco found himself at the other end of the spectrum. He led Marin Cilic by two sets in the third round of the Australian Open, but couldn't haul himself over the line.