He is a lefty from Madrid, owner of one of the most powerful forehands on the circuit. He has two major goals in his career to accomplish: winning Wimbledon and winning the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award. This is an excerpt from the interview that can be read in full in the upcoming Bionic FHM magazine May issue, with the best advice to take care of your body and get in shape, along with the training secrets of last week’s Trofeo Godó champion, Fernando Verdasco.

“I started playing tennis at age two, with my father, and began taking classes when I was four. I was a skinny kid, without much muscle. All my muscle mass has come in recent years.” Fernando Verdasco is now 27 years and has a body shaped by many hours spent in the gym and on the track. Six hours a day, to be exact.

After helping lead Spain twice to glory with the Davis Cup and reaching the Australian Open semifinal in 2009, what has been worrying him the most lately is a back injury could be, at worst, a herniated disk.

“I have not had many injuries in my life: when I was thirteen I broke a finger on my right hand and had a minor setback. I have a calcification in my right knee since I was fifteen that bothers me when it’s cold, and this year in Australia, I started to have some pain in my leg and I don’t know if the sciatic nerve is affected.

“When you are at this high level, an injury can ruin all the efforts you’ve made in a year. Tennis is not like soccer or basketball, with peers who can support you if you are injured or sick. With tennis, it depends only on yourself. I picked up many colds and flus going to the U.S. when I would go into freezing cold restaurants in a short-sleeved shirt. Over time I learned.”

The Perfect Tennis Player
“Karlovic’s serve, Rafa’s endurance, Del Potro’s backhand…the forehand, that is more difficult because there are many good ones. Gonzalez’s is very good, Nadal is very tough…I would stay with Almagro, Gonzalez, and Tsonga. ”

Citing his move in the elite group of men’s tennis, a level which is reached through a combination of genetic advantage and hard work, he said. “To be there you have to have talent, but that isn’t the only thing. I would say you need 30% talent and the other 70% is training. The body is easy to train, through the right routines and diets, you also need to train the mind. I always try to be as positive in the important moments as I can. There are times when this is impossible, but you have to give 100% no matter the outcome.” Fernando does his best in every match, though it is very clear as to what has always been his Achilles heel: “Consistency what I need most to be among the top five. I’ve been improving that aspect and last year was the best of my career, finishing ninth in the rankings. I just needed to make more finals or semi-finals to get higher up there.

The Top 5
“This year, it will be very difficult to predict the Top 5 of the ATP because the players have not started at the best level. Federer has not done as well in the last two Masters Series, Nadal is not at his best, though they will both stay on top. Murray and Djokovic haven’t had good form. If I had to bet, I would say: Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and, as the fifth, Roddick or Del Potro. I’ll try to be there, but it is always going to be difficult, because there are great players. I think if I could pick one tournament to win, it would be Wimbledon, because it has always been among my favorite tournaments. And if I could choose a rival in the final, it would be Federer, who has won six times.”

The Four Slams
We asked Verdasco to define in few words what the four majors in tennis mean him: “Wimbledon is my dream tournament. Roland Garros belongs to the Spaniards and Latinos. The Australian Open is, after my semifinal last year, very special to me. It’s the most comfortable Slam and a place where people are incredibly nice. Playing the U.S Open is a unique experience, it’s the biggest arena in the world with over 21,000 spectators. It would be incredible to win that tournament and New York is one of my favorite cities. And the Davis Cup is something that has given me so much. Winning the last two, in Argentina and Barcelona, was incredible. I dreamed more about winning Davis Cup that the winning the U.S Open or the Australian Open.”

The Invencible Armada
Spanish tennis as a team and as individual talent, has given much joy to the fans in recent years. Fernando only has good things to say about the other Spanish players: “Feliciano is my best friend. Robredo has been a very consistent player throughout his career and is very professional. Nadal is the best Spanish player in history and one of the best in the world. Almagro is a player with great power and a lot of potential. Granollers is a very dangerous player on clay because he can outplay you really well, and he is really intelligent.”

And Verdasco?

“It is difficult to define oneself, but I’d say I am a very powerful and talented tennis player.” And a player who probably aspires to emulate his childhood idols: “When I was a teenager, Agassi was always my idol. Then came Sampras and Marcelo Rios. It was also an earlier era of great Spanish players like Bruguera, Costa and Corretja, but Agassi has always been my greatest influence and role model.”

Verdasco vs Nadal
The way things are going, would Fernando be able to beat Rafa?

“I don’t know. It’s difficult to predict a result in tennis and it depends on a lot of things. One week you win easily and in the next the results are totally different, even without having had a variation in your preparation or your game. It also depends on the surface: if we play on clay, it would be easier for him to win and, if on hard courts, things would be more even and harder for him. But we are talking about one of the best players of all time and it’s difficult that he loses a player outside the top ten. We have faced each other many times, and at times, I have been close to win, like in the Australian Open semifinal or in Queens, but in the end he always escapes. Rafa is such a fighter; he never gives away any point and it is very tough to beat him.”

Life after tennis
The career of elite tennis players has an ephemeral life, like all top-level competitive athletes, so you have to think about the future: “If I hadn’t been a tennis player, I would have been an actor, and I would love to dedicate myself to making action movies like Avatar, Gladiator, Clash of the Titans or a TV series such as 24. I love movies with lots of adrenaline, a little less comedy and I really don’t like horror films.”

So the script for Titanic 2 that was delivered this week, we should throw away? “No, man, just call James Cameron, for anything.” True, we forgot that behind this melodramic film is the mind of James Cameron.

Fernando is also taking his first steps as a model: “It was something that struck my attention, being a Calvin Klein model, and I really enjoyed it.”

If they ever make a biopic about his life, Verdasco has clear who could portrait him: “Miguel Angel Silvestre would fit: he’s Spanish, dark and a former tennis player.”

After traveling half the world, Madrid is still his favorite city. Fernando spends his free time at airports connected with Internet and watching movies and what he misses the most when on tour is his family and having a normal lifestyle. If he had to pick a prize outside of the tennis circuit to win, he wouldn’t hesitate for a second: “The Prince of Asturias awards.”