on 17 May 2021 he dropped out of the top 100 for the first time since 2004 to No. 105, his lowest singles ranking in 17 years. At the 2021 Belgrade Open he recorded two consecutive victories over Frenchmen Lucas Pouille and Adrian Mannarino but lost to eventual finalist, Slovak qualifier Alex Molčan. He did not win another ATP-level match and dropped out of the top 150 at year-end finishing 2021 at World No. 154. 2022: Out of top 200, First two wins in a year, Two ATP quarterfinals Ranked No. 201, Verdasco returned to the ATP tour at the 2022 Argentina Open in Buenos Aires where he reached the second round using his protected ranking and recorded his first ATP win over Hugo Dellien in nearly a year. He went one step further with a win over Thiago Monteiro to reach the quarterfinals. At the ATP 500 2022 Rio Open he recorded his first win at this level for 2022 defeating Dušan Lajović. He reached his second quarterfinal of 2022 at the 2022 Estoril Open as a lucky loser where he replaced second seed Diego Schwartzman who had a first round bye. As a result, he moved up to No. 108 in the rankings on 2 May 2022. With his participation at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships as of 27 June 2022, he was in second place on the list of Grand Slam appearances overall with 70, tied with Fabrice Santoro. He reached the main draw of the US Open as a lucky loser, after losing to Pavel Kotov in the final round of the qualifications, recording his 18th participation at this Major and his 71st participation overall. In November 2022, Verdasco was banned from professional tennis for two months after testing positive in February for the prohibited drug methylphenidate; he had inadvertently forgotten to renew his Therapeutic Use Exemption for the medication. Playing style and equipment Verdasco is an offensive baseliner who is comfortable on all surfaces, with fast hard courts being his best. Verdasco is good at backhand but considers his best shot to be his forehand, a shot that commentator Brad Gilbert often refers to as his "Fearhand". His serve is characteristic of a left-handed player predominantly using slice to create a lot of spin, and is capable of speeds exceeding 230 km/h. Verdasco is known for rivaling compatriot Rafael Nadal with the amount of topspin he