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The Argentine on a bad record with lefties

Mayer beat Young last week to improve his record with left-handed players to 2-7 this season (12-27 throughout his carrier). Verdasco missed Shanghai for personal reasons, but now fights to be a seed at Australian Open

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With Djokovic not yet securing the top spot in the ATP table and a few more players fighting for the ATP Finals in London, each point matters. Some players are trying to get in the Top 100 while others want to be one of the seeds at Australian Open. Verdasco, currently ranked as 35th in the ATP table, has almost no points to defend in the last two tournaments and a good chance of reaching his goal for Australia.

Spanish media are often flooded with photos of Verdasco and his girlfriend, whose father's death forced him to pull out of Shanghai tournament. He was on the first flight back to Madrid and got back to playing last week. Just like last year, he reached semifinals in Stockholm, beating Matosevic in three sets and Nieminen in two. As for this tournament, his record is 17-10, but most of those wins happened while it was still played on a clay-surface. As the surface changed, his good performances came to an end. He has not had two consecutive wins here since 2009.

Mayer lost a Top 100 position late last season, but secured a spot at Australian Open with good challenger performances. When talking about Argentinean tennis, Del Potro was their number one for a long time, but with the numerous injuries he was forced to deal with, may not have the strength to try much longer. Monaco was a Top 10 player a few years ago and Berlocq started winning tournaments as well, but neither managed to turn into the Argentinean top player. Mayer, being ranked as No.25 in the ATP list, is currently holding that title. The 27-year-old impressed everyone this year.

Mayer always had good game but often lacked confidence. Everything, however, changed this season with a few good results that proved him he's capable of doing well. Grand Slams were particularly good for Mayer as he reached third rounds in the last three. There's also Hamburg, the greatest title of his carrier and the match he played with Federer (missed out on five match-points). Federer said after that match:

- This is probably the greatest comeback of my carrier. I don't know exactly how I managed to save some of those match points. I think there's no way I could do some of it again.

Mayer didn't succumb to desperation though. He went to Stockholm and lose the second round match to Bachinger. The German was taking risk and that is what eventually saw him winning. More importantly, Bachinger lost only one of his 16 service games and that is something Mayer should be worried about. Another problem for his today could be the fact Verdasco is left-handed, which has traditionally proved to be tricky for Mayer, who's on a bad record with lefties (12-27 throughout his carrier), having lost both head-to-head matches with Verdasco.