The Spanish Davis Cup team has joined the “Show abuse the red card” campaign sponsored by the Ministry of Equality.

The players posed holding a symbolic red cards as a sign of social rejection against abusers.

The players joined the cause while in France preparing for last weekend’s Davis Cup quarterfinal in the town of Clermont Ferrand.

The cause is the result of an agreement signed on May 20 by Spain’s Equality Minister Bibiana Aido and President of the RFET to promote equality between men and women and to create awareness and encourage the prevention of gender violence.

The campaign, the minister said at the signing of the agreement, “holds the prospect of making a simple gesture, a symbol recognized by all, a gesture involving the whole society: drawing a red card against all abusers.”

Spain was knocked out of the Davis Cup in the quarterfinals with a clean sweep by France, 5-0, preventing them from attempting a Davis Cup hat trick. Fernando lost his singles match on Friday against Michael Llodra, and his doubles with Feliciano against Llodra and Julien Benneteau, both matches going to four sets.

Fernando is currently in Madrid celebrating Spain’s victory at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. His next tournament is the Skistar Swedish Open in Båstad. He has a bye in the first round and will play either Stephane Robert or Jonathan Dasnières de Veigy in the second. Vamos Fer!

Audio interviews from the Davis Cup site with Fernando from the singles and doubles draw and from after his singles and doubles matches.

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Singles Draw

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Doubles Draw

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Post-Match: Singles

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Post-Match: Doubles

Spain has found itself in a two point deficit in the Davis Cup quarterfinal against France. David Ferrer lost the first rubber 6-7³ 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6 to Gael Monfils, despite clawing back from a two set deficit and gaining a crucial break when Monfils was serving for the match in the fourth set.

Fernando lost a tough match against Michael Llodra, 7-6⁵, 4-6, 3-6, 6-7². He was never really able to get a feel on Llodra’s service game, and only had a handful of break points the entire match, one of which he converted.

“Llodra played at a high level and deserved the victory,” Fernando said in the brief press conference after the match.

Tomorrow’s doubles match is crucial if Spain wants to keep their hopes of defending their Davis Cup title alive. Fernando and Feliciano will face Llodra and Julien Benneteau in doubles on Saturday, hoping to get the crucial win to try and make a comeback.

Davis Cup quarterfinals day is here! The opening ceremony kicks off today as well as the first two singles matches. David Ferrer is up first against Gael Monfils, and then Fernando takes on Michael Llodra. Fernando will play doubles with Feliciano on Saturday against Llodra and Benneteau, and the reverse singles will be held on Sunday.

The tie kicks off at 7am EST, 11am GMT and 2:00pm local time (check out this handy time zone converter to find your time zone!) and will be broadcast on several international channels (check here for times and stations)

Vamos and good luck, boys!

Fernando is back to training normally with the team after twisting his ankle during a training session on Monday.

Fernnado is currently aiming to play both singles and doubles with Feliciano, and the two trained with coach Francis Roig and Nicolas Almagro and with David Marrero, who is accompanying the team during their stay in Clermont-Ferrand.

The official draw will take place tomorrow morning and the tie will begin on Friday!

(via noticias web)

Sorry for the lack of updates here! I’m working at a summer camp since two weeks ago and that’s taken up a lot of my time. As you probably already know, Fer lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Fabio Fognini, so he’s been taking some down time over the past two weeks, and now we’re heading into Davis Cup quarterfinal weekend. Fernando, as well as David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Feliciano Lopez, will make up the team that Spain will send to France for their quarterfinal tie on the indoor hard courts of Clermont-Ferrand. They’ll face a French team comprised of Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon (who replaces and injured Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau.

The tie will be broadcast live on several international stations, and you can check here for times and channels! Below, you can read and listen to an interview that Fer did with Craig Gabriel:

“Everyone who asks me that, how I see this tie, I say that it’s going to be one of the hardest for the last many years. They have so solid team. They will put, what I think, what I’ve heard, a very fast court. It’s going to be very difficult.

“It’s going to be a really hard, tough crowd, but we have already experienced in Davis Cup with tough crowds, like Argentina. I think that in the players playing now, all of us, we have already enough experience to handle that situation. So I think it’s going to be everything on the court.

“Both teams are unbelievable complete teams, two singles unbelievable and doubles so good, both of them. I think it’s going to be so, so close. Maybe it’s going to 3-2, or maybe it can be 5-0 for one or 5-0 for the other one because that every match is going to be so hard and so close. In Davis Cup you never know. It’s that thing that makes Davis Cup so special.”

“[Winning in Argentina] was of course one point in my career that everything changed. I was No. 16 in the world in that match against Acasuso and just one month later I did the semis in Australia and I went into the Top 10 for the first time in my life.

“The confidence, the spirit, everything that the tie in Argentina gave me, like a person, like a player, it was so much, so important for me. After that I need to say that everything changed so much.”
–

click above to hear an audio version of the full interview

Fernando wrote an article for the UK’s Daily Mail Online about his hopes for the upcoming Wimbledon Championships, and a little about where he stays, what he eats and what his practice routine is like during the grass Slam.

WIMBLEDON 2010: Fernando Verdasco: A house near SW19? No way, who’d do the cleaning?

Being from Madrid and growing up on hard courts, it’s always tough getting used to the grass after a year away. But you must do it as soon as possible, because this is the most important tournament. If I could pick a Grand Slam to win, it would be Wimbledon.

My preparation has been hard this year because I finished the French Open with a foot injury and had to pull out of Queen’s, but I’m feeling fine now.

I arrived in London last Tuesday and played exhibition matches at the Boodles tournament at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire on Friday and Saturday to get the rhythm of grass.

There are so many traditional things that make Wimbledon so special: how beautiful it is, the grass and the buildings; that they won’t let you have sponsors on your kit; all the players have to play in white; and that they serve strawberries and cream.

I’ve reached the fourth round three times now, but I’ve got sad memories of SW19 because I’ve lost big matches when I had really good chances to win.

They’re the hardest losses to take, probably the hardest of my career.

I was two sets to one up against Radek Stepanek and 3-0 up in the fourth in 2006, but failed to reach the quarter-finals. Then, in 2008, I was two sets and a break up against Mario Ancic and I lost 13-11 in the fifth.

They were really tough experiences for me. I’ve never played against Fabio Fognini, my first-round opponent, on grass before, although I beat him on clay in Acapulco, Mexico, this year.

But if all goes well, I could meet Andy Murray in the quarter-finals. I’m really looking forward to trying to make that happen.

It would be such a great experience to play the British No 1 at Wimbledon. If I reached that far, it would be one of those matches you keep in your memory for the rest of your life.

I know what it’s like to have your home crowd willing you on from the matches I’ve played in Madrid. It’s a great feeling, but it makes you feel more pressure because you want to win so badly — a bit like England or Spain in the World Cup.

I watched Spain’s first match and, of course, I would like to see all the matches — but I’ll put the tennis first.

My family are coming over for the tournament and we prefer to stay in a hotel in central London, rather than a house in Wimbledon village, because there are so many of us.

It’s a bit quieter. There will be around eight of us this year: my parents, my little sister, my cousin, a couple of friends and my fitness coach.

We had the chance to get a house near the All England Club this year, but my father didn’t really like the idea. It would be difficult to find somewhere to eat every night, plus we would have to clean and look after the house — and we don’t want to be doing that!

In the evenings, we like to go and have dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Kensington.

The owner is a friend of mine and knows all the Spanish players.

We go there quite a lot during the tournament. Wherever we are in the world, we normally go to Italian restaurants and eat plenty of carbohydrates but here, since we’ve found this restaurant, we can eat our own food, such as Spanish ham and tortillas.

We spend so much time out of Spain, it’s nice to find a piece of home. I also enjoy the strawberries and cream at the Club, although the cream isn’t too healthy. I can’t be having too much of that!

My day-to-day routine varies. It depends on the draw. We’ll go to Wimbledon and hit in the morning, then warm up and play a match. My best friend on tour is Feliciano Lopez, but I practise with a lot of different players.

If we have any free time, we might go for a walk down Oxford Street and do a bit of shopping. But in Grand Slams you must really focus all your energy on the tournament.

You just have to play and practice and then rest. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain too much!

(via daily mail)

While in London participating in the Boodles Challenge, Fernando stopped by the Calvin Klein Jeans flagship store on Regent Street. He greeted several fans and signed a wall poster of himself before spending some time shopping in the store before leaving.

Fernando is one of the current faces of Calvin Klein’s new X Underwear campaign, along with American actors Kellan Lutz and Mehcad Brooks and Japanese soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata.

Fernando attended the Men’s Health Magazine Fashion Awards at the Club de Campo in Madrid on June 8. Fernando was the big winner of the night, receiving the Man of the Year award.

He also spent his week off attending the Rock in Rio concert, taking his younger sister to see Miley Cyrus, and attending Shakira’s concert. He also went out for tapas with Shakira and some other friends as well.