Fernando kept the Trofeo Conde de Godó in Spanish hands as he defeated Robin Soderling 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to become the fourth consecutive Spanish winner of the Torneo Godó (after Moya, Robredo & Nadal)

Fernando’s victory today at the Barcelona Open is his fifth career title and second title of the year and marks the third time this year he’s won a tournament where he’s beaten a top ten player in the final (def. Tsonga [10] in the Kooyong exhibition and Roddick [7] in San Jose) Barcelona is Fernando’s first 500 series tournament win and, according to him, winning this title has marked the finest moment in his career so far.

Some stuff from his post-match presser:

“I’m very happy to have won this tournament. It was a tough final and it’s been a very difficult week; there has not been an easy match but it was all worth it in the end to lift the trophy. I have never played in two consecutive finals before.

Everything you can win gives you confidence and this tournament is very special for me, as it is for all the Spaniards. But what I achieved last week and this is going to help me a lot in terms of confidence and experience. Having played in last week’s final was a help to me today.

Of course Nadal is a tough proposition on clay and he’s one or maybe even two levels above everyone else, but I really feel like I can beat anyone else right now and I think I have a good chance of making more finals on clay. The important thing is to get to Roland Garros in good shape.

In the second set I let my level drop a little, I was waiting for him to make errors precisely at the time when he started to play better. I started to drop the ball short and he was stepping inside the court, which is when he’s very dangerous. In the third set I began to hit deeper and harder again so that would not be so comfortable. I noticed that he started to tire a little bit and that encouraged me to fight harder even though I was tired.

I feel like I have made a lot of progress mentally over the past year and I can cope better on the days when maybe not everything is going quite right. I have learned that when things are not going well, you have to keep fighting, and that on the court you have to do whatever you can with what you have, because you’re not always going to be hitting the ball incredibly well and you’re not always going to have good days. There are few of those, so you have to try to fight and learn to suffer although those are not nice feelings. I think that in the last year I’ve taken a big step forward in this sense.”