F. VERDASCO/J-W Tsonga, 7-5, 6-3

An interview with: FERNANDO VERDASCO

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations Fernando.

FERNANDO VERDASCO: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: You are the 2010 AAMI Classic Champion. Well done. Have we got questions, please, for Fernando.

Q. Fernando, how important for your confidence and preparation was this week, to go through and play the finals in tough conditions? Is all that good for your preparation ahead of
the Open?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I think that is – and I hope – that is going to help me, no, these three wins during these four days, and doing in this tough conditions that it was with the wind and, you know, I think it was also the first singles matches of the year for me since London, Masters Cup, last year. You know, I hope that it’s going to help me a lot to be ready for the next two weeks, so let’s see if I can feel myself and play at least as good as I was playing last year here. So I’m very happy that, you know, that I came again this year to Kooyong and getting ready for the best I can for the Australian Open.

Q. Can you assess how well you are playing – 80 percent, 90 percent?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: Sorry?

Q. Can you assess how good your game is at the moment, or do you need to go further?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: Like, my game, in percentages?

Q. Yes.

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I think that with these conditions it’s tough to say one per cent, you know, with this wind because, you know, is sometimes almost big part of the game you just try to put the ball deep and difficult for the other guy and just move the ball a little bit around, but also with big margins, you know, because with this wind, if you don’t play with, like, some big margin then you make a lot of mistakes and forced errors, so that’s one thing. So I think that I cansay physically, yes, physically I can tell you that I’m maybe – I’m not hundred percent, but maybe I’m 90 percent. I think that with the rhythm of the matches I’ll be a hundred per cent during the tournament. I was working really hard in the gym during two weeks in Las Vegas and these three matches, and all the practice I had the last week, playing a lot of sets, was to make the next step and to put my physical condition the best as possible for the Open. So I think I’m pretty close for the hundred percent, but I think I can be a little bit more when I get more rhythm of matches. And technically, about the heat, like the forehand, the backhand, everything, I’m feeling really good. It was really windy and really tough to play so, you know, if I play as good as I play with this wind I think I can really play so good if it’s no windy. But for me, the most important thing is that I put myself in a good level with these tough conditions and I win three good
matches against three very good players, so that’s the most important thing for me.

Q. What did you think of your draw, Fernando, for the Open?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: It’s tough draw, is very tough, starting with one guy that is going to have whole lot of people supporting him, you know, all the country, but at least just the people in the stadium that I will feel. I think that, you know, he’s a very good player, he’s improving a lot and it’s going to be a tough match. Then the other rounds, after that, you know, third round seeded is Ferrero. I think I heard he had like it was his uncle in Auckland and he didn’t know if he was able to play, or not, but I think he’s going to be able to play, and if he plays he’s going to be a very tough player. Then, you know, in fourth round, Davydenko, maybe the guy in better shape right now; quarter-finals with Federer; you know, I can say, semi-finals with Djokovic, final with Nadal, Del Potro, sort of, or not. When you are looking to win the tournament, when you come to one grand slam looking with a goal to win the grand slam you don’t need to really look, you know, in semis or in finals. You really need to go match by match and just try to feel and play the best as possible every day, and don’t think about who are you playing in ten days, you know. I will think about Tuesday, and then if I win Thursday, and like this. So we will see.

article with a little insight into Fernando’s pre-season training in Las Vegas with Gil Reyes :)
—

Fernando Verdasco was the man bearing the weight, straining against a leg-press machine as he lifted more than 600 pounds here last month. And yet the man making the most noise was his strength and conditioning coach, Gil Reyes, who was hunched forward in front of Verdasco and bellowing in two languages (“Beauty!” “Yesss!” “Si, puedes!”) as the Spanish tennis star raised the massive 270-kilogram load not once, not twice, but 14 times until Reyes finally shouted at him to stop.

“He’s a beast,” said Reyes, looking genuinely shaken. “I stopped him because I didn’t want him to break down. If he totally maxed out today, there’s a good chance it would throw him off stride tomorrow or the next day.”

Reyes’s gym occupies the ground floor of a residence inside a gated community on a road named after Agassi, who had the house and court next door built for his parents. Reyes lives in the community, too, and his carpeted weight room is filled with machines he built himself. He designed them for Agassi to be tennis specific when nothing specific enough existed.

For a reporter to enter the room requires the signature of a non-disclosure agreement, because Reyes wants to protect the confidentiality of the inventions he may commercialize.

“You can’t find some of these anywhere else,” said José Verdasco, Fernando’s father, who followed his own lifting routine as his son pushed his limits, exchanging embraces and fist bumps with Reyes during his intense training and bonding sessions.

Training with Reyes intermittently over the past 15 months, Verdasco has gone from 190 pounds to approximately 210 and added muscle. But Reyes said he spends more time strengthening Verdasco’s lower body than his upper body. One of Reyes’s many mantras is, “Weak legs command, strong legs obey.”

Verdasco, he of the monumental leg presses, is clearly seeking obedience along with a second home in Las Vegas to be closer to Reyes and his weights.

“If this is the future, I don’t really know,” said Verdasco of the Adidas program. “But of course it really helped me a lot, because I really found Gil that I have this strong connection with. Maybe if Adidas took another guy, maybe I wouldn’t have that same connection, and maybe I wouldn’t like it as much.”

(via nytimes)

Very insightful presser from Fernando after he defeated Novak Djokovic yesterday. Fernando being Fernando, he talks A LOT, but the more he talks, the more we learn about him, so read and enjoy :)
—
F. VERDASCO/N. Djokovic 6-1, 6-2

An interview with: FERNANDO VERDASCO

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Fernando. Great win today, Fernando.

Q. A general assessment of the way you played and the way Novak played?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: You know, I don’t like to speak about the others. I can let you know or tell you about my feelings and about my game, and I think that Novak is the one who needs to speak about himself. So, about myself, I was feeling good to today. It was good conditions? We all know that here, always, every day is pretty windy. The wind is not going to the same side of the court all the time. It is changing pretty much and so is not – you know, when is windy like that is not easy for everybody, you know, for anybody. So my feelings today to be that feeling was pretty good. I was trying to control as much as possible this condition and just, you know, just give my hundred per cent, like I said yesterday, to be the best as possible for the Australian Open. I think that that’s the goal, you know, and that’s what I want to do. That’s why I’m here playing, trying to feel and put myself in the best level as possible to go to Australian Open next week with good confidence and feeling good, feeling the best.

Q. Was it a surprise to you to win that easy?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: Of course there’s always surprise, you know. You never go to the court, and even less with one guy like Novak Djokovic and you think that you are going to win 6-1, 6-2. But I was just trying to do what all the best I can, trying to put the balls in, trying to force more when I had the chance. But with this wind it’s pretty tough. The ball is moving a lot and it’s pretty difficult to have a rally, good chance to attack, you know. So I was just trying to do what I think is the best for me and I really play so good, so the result for me is not important. For me, the important thing is to feel good and to try to get as much confidence as I can for next week.

Q. Why do you think you play so well in Australia? Is it the surface? Last year you were pretty close to winning the Australian Open, a few points away maybe.

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I don’t know. It was – you know, if I’m honest, it’s a strange feeling because before last year was the grand slam that I played worse, before last year, and last year was the one I played better in my life, the best level of tennis in my life. So it was a pretty big change from the worst results if you see all the grand slams before 2009, and in 2009 following the semi-finals and playing that level of tennis. After that, I pretty get a lot of confidence. I think it’s a lot in there, the brain, you know, mentality, and watching last year how I was able to play that makes me realise that I can really play good here. The conditions, I like the conditions, hot. I like to play with a lot of sun and the hot conditions, so this is one thing that I always like to play. But windy was one thing that, like, two, three, four years ago it was pretty tough for me mentally, you know. I was putting myself like with a lot – I was always nervous when I need to play with wind, and right now I’m confident. I just want to go there and try to, try to get that condition the best as possible and knowing that it’s that bad for everyone – is not windy for me and for the other is not. So, you know, I really feel so good here, playing good. The feeling is so good always and, you know, since the first day I came this year it was, it was good memories from the last year and good feeling. So, you know, I was working really hard this pre-season to try to come here with most chances as possible. So this is what I’m doing, trying to work hard to be ready for the next two weeks.

Q. Have you been hitting with Rafa lately? If you have, how do you think he’s placed for the Australian Open?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I didn’t play with him. If I tell you the last time I saw him was in Davis Cup in December. After that he went to Majorca to practice. I went few days to Mexico for holidays because I really want, of course I want holidays, but the doctors told me to rest at least ten days because I was in the problem with the sores that almost pulled out of the final of the Davis Cup. So I went ten days holidays, and from Mexico I went straight to Las Vegas to practice with Darren Cahill and Andre Agassi and team, and I came straight away from Vegas. I saw him yesterday. I think what the first days I saw him since Davis Cup, so I don’t know how he feeling?

Q. Just with Cahill and the whole working with Agassi’s crew, how much has that given you? I suppose, is it maybe tactical or what is it?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I start working with them, like what you can say working because in July I was four days, so just to try, but really working last December, December 2008 and, you know, watching the Australian Open 2009 I can say that they gave me a lot, and after 2009, my best year by far, you know, and the finishing the year top 10 for first time, and now again, you know, the feeling really good for this Australian Open. I was again for two weeks, like, pre-season before, so I’m feeling good and all the help that they are giving me is so important for me. I’m always saying thanks to all of them because they are unbelievable people and they are treating me so good and they are trying to make me the best player as possible, so I need to say thanks a lot to them.

Q. Darren is out here for the two weeks. Will you deal with him on a match by match basis or is it–?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: The pre-season – the truth is Darren came to Adelaide pretty soon to be with his family, in Christmas, so I didn’t have the chance to spend with him much time. But last year was also the same. He came here so early and I didn’t have the chance to, you know. We talk and we are, you know, talking about the matches and about the feelings and about how I play and about how I need to play and everything. But you know, the time I really spend with Gil. Right now, Gil is like my second father, and when I’m available I’m all day with him, every day, and working almost half a day with him. And with Agassi is also the same. He was with Steffi and the kids, like last year, with, you know, staying Christmas in the mountains, and he came just like three days before I came to Australia so we had the chance at least to be talking a lot for these days and he was giving me, like the year before a lot of, you know, thoughts and experience that he had here in Australa. It’s the grand slam that he felt better, so he had, he had unbelievable memories from here and he’s trying to teach me a lot from that, so everything is so important, all three are so important for me?

Q. Do you think you could win the tournament?

FERNANDO VERDASCO: I think I can.

THE MODERATOR: On that note, we will end it. Thanks, Fernando.

FERNANDO VERDASCO: Thank you.

On Thursday, Fernando and Feliciano were invited to the Real Casa de Correos, located in Puerta del Sol, to inaugurate the traditional nativity scene constructed in the building’s courtyard. The scene is formed by 600 figures and hundreds of buildings in varying sizes, all occupying 175 square meters in area.

The boys were accompanied by the president of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, to whom they presented special presents. Fernando gave her a replica of the shirt he wore in the Davis Cup final, with a signed dedication: “To my friend Esperanza, with affection,” while Feliciano gave her a replica of the racquet he used.

(via telemadrid)

Fernando spoke in an interview about his fitness and preparation for the upcoming Davis Cup final:

“The foot is feeling good. Physically, I was with some problems in my knees but I took some days off. I hope that all the matches here at the Masters will be without pain and also I will arrive in Spain to play the Davis Cup feeling good. I need to see day-by-day how I will feel and then we will see if I am the best option to play. If not, I will not be angry. I just want to win the Final of the Davis Cup and if it’s me playing, and I’m the one, then of course I’ll be so happy.

“But if I’m not ready, or if I have pain, or I feel that Ferrer or another guy of my team is in better shape than me and can play better than me, then I will talk to the captain. I will not be selfish and think only about myself. I will think about the team and winning the Davis Cup, whoever plays the matches.

“I’m so excited. Last year it was really tough for me to play in Argentina with all those people routing against me but that makes me stronger and tougher. I wish to one day play the Final in Spain and this year it is possible so I’m so happy to have that chance and I will do my best to try to keep the trophy in Spain for one more year.”

click above to hear an audio version of the full interview

(via daviscup)

J. DEL POTRO/F. Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1)

An interview with: FERNANDO VERDASCO

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. He kept trying to get away from you, especially in the third set, and you kept coming back. What was the difference for you to keep pulling him back and pull off the tiebreaker in the end? What did you do to get back in the match to force the tiebreak?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: Fight.

Q. How so?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: Fight and try to, you know, keep staying at the match, and try to do my best every point to still having chances to win. You know, is only thing I was doing.

Q. What happened in the tiebreak?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: That I play bad and he didn’t make mistakes and I did quite a lot. So that’s why I lost and he won, no? He didn’t play even one ball long line, you know, in the tiebreak, and I lost maybe four, you know, trying to go not for the winner, but just to move him, no? He was really waiting the cross‑court. Just to try to open the court, I miss few forehands long line. I also miss one forehand cross‑court long. You know, I did many mistakes in that tiebreak. He also served good few points. The tiebreak was gone.

Q. Do you feel you lost an opportunity today to have a chance of getting to the semifinals?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: Of course, it was a big opportunity. Right now the chances are pretty low. You know, needs to happen many things, no, for me to qualify. So, you know, it was pretty hard, no, for me to lose that match after I recover the first set and after I recover the break with 5‑3 on his serve. Is really hard, no? But I tried my best and I was really close.

Q. How do you feel you’ve played overall in the two matches?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: I feel I play good. But I also play against a very good players. You know, is not enough, no, to play good tennis to beat these guys. You need to play a good tennis and also play very good in the very important moments, no, and don’t make mistakes.

You know, there are many things, no, that you need to do to beat these guys. I was pretty close both days, but the level of my tennis I think was good. I need to be happy for the level I played, but also at the same time I’m sad because I lost the matches, no? Is normal.

Q. Did you hurt your leg in the third set?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: No, no. It was a nail. I almost break the nail of my foot. But, you know, many times happen during this year in hard court. You know, I really have my nails very bad. You know, I’m taking care about of that. But is not a big deal that, no?

Q. What are your thoughts on playing Murray next?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: What I thought? You know, what I would think, just to go out and try my best. Doesn’t matter if I have chances or not to qualify. I’m here to try my best anyway and to enjoy. You know, anyway, if I don’t have chances to qualify, I will go out, I will even enjoy more because I know I don’t have nothing to lose. You know, I will go next week to play Davis Cup. I need to keep trying to get my best level for that tie also. I will just go there outside and try to play my best anyway. Doesn’t matter if I qualified or not.

R. FEDERER/F. Verdasco 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

An interview with: FERNANDO VERDASCO

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You were in control of that match for a long time, then it changed in the second set. Describe what happened in that game, what you remember about that game.
FERNANDO VERDASCO: I think that, you know, he was playing really good, and I had few games with my serve with problems till that game, and he finally break me in that one. So, you know, it was also the set. So it was really important game, no? But he was playing good and having his chances, no? I also my chance in 5 All with Love 30. This passing shot going out for nothing. You know, tennis is like that, no? After that, my fitness, it start going down. He also get confidence and the match change.

Q. Did you feel more nervous in those two games at 5-All and 6-5?
FERNANDO VERDASCO: No, it was not nerves.

While in Madrid to recieve his award for the Premios Siete Estrellas del Deporte, Fernando took the opportunity to speak about his two upcoming and very important tournaments: the Masters Cup and Davis Cup (although most of the conversation appears to have been about the latter!)

While in Madrid, Nando got treatment for some discomfort in his knees, but hopes to be fully 100% in the coming weeks. “Mentally, I’m as fine as I was when the season started. I want to stay motivated and hopeful for London and the Davis Cup final, and that always gives me a special motivation. I’ve dreamed of reaching the Masters Cup since my childhood and it was my main goal this season, to be among the top eight and have achieved so much this year.”

Fernando feel optimistic about Spain’s chances in this December’s Davis Cup final, but cautions Armada supporters to take care about what they say regarding the team’s chances, after what happened last year to the Argentines in the final in Mar del Plata. “We may be the favorites, but we should not be declared the winners before the final. We must proceed with humility. Until we win the last point of the last game, we must always think we can lose.”

Playing Masters Cup in London on an indoor hard court will be a difficult transition for Nando and Rafa, who will have little time to adjust to the clay surface for the Davis Cup final. “We will try to get well physically after a tough year with many trips and tournaments. But we only have these two left, and we will for sure give everything to try to win another Davis Cup. I am delighted to be on the team for the final, because it’s my first final at home and will be very special. Berdych has incredible potential and Stepanek just made the semis in Paris and is having the best year of his career. They are dangerous separately and as doubles partners. So we will have to go game by game. I hope that we are at the level we will need to be at to beat them.”

Fernando returned home to Madrid last Friday from Paris, celebrating his birthday with family, getting treatment for his knees and picking up his award. He plans to travel to London on Thursday.

(via marca)

Fernando Verdasco yesterday expressed his support for Andre Agassi, who recently admitted using meth as a player and misleading the ATP and drug testers about his usage. Nando is one the current players perhaps the closest to Agassi through his association with the American’s former trainer Gil Reyes,

“He was my idol, all my life when I was a kid, and he will still be my idol. Everyone can make mistakes. My thoughts about Andre will not change because of this. He is a great person, he is always trying to help me and that for me is more important.”

The Times Online UK has a really good article about Nando and how he’s been working in Las Vegas since losing in the first round of Shanghai in order to prepare himself for Valencia and Paris in the hopes of making London. It’s a fantastic article with a lot of really great insight.

Also, apologies for the lack of updates, I’ve been super busy, but I’ll be back to working on getting the rest of the unfinished pages completed, including Nando’s tentative 2010 schedule. He’s already been confirmed to play two exhibitions, the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and the AAMI Classic in Kooyong.

Click the link below to read the article! :)

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