Fernando has a bye in the first round of Indian Wells and will face either Andreas Beck or a qualifier in the second. He also has a potential third round meet-up with Tomas Berdych, a fourth round meetup with Nikolay Davydenko and a quarterfinal meeting with Rafael Nadal.

(via women’s world daily and thanks to donkeygrooming on twitter for the heads up!)

Fernando is, of course, entered in the singles main draw and will likely be seeded 10th (del Potro and Gonzalez have both withdrawn) He and Feliciano are also on the entry list (and seeded!) for the doubles draw. Check back here or on our twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday for more information about the draw!

Even without their three top players, Spain pulled out an impressive 4-1 win over Spain in this year’s Davis Cup first round tie. Despite not having Fernando, or Rafa, Juan Carlos and Feliciano, Spain still pulled together a formidable team, with David Ferrer and Tommy Robredo sharing the leadership role and Nicolas Almagro and Marcel Granollers, who made his Davis Cup debut as a player in the doubles rubber. With the win, Spain continues its impressive 21 consecutive tie wins on clay courts, and 19 consecutive wins in home ties.

The Armada will face France, in France, in the quarterfinals in July.

Fernando previously survived a first round scare against Italian Fabio Fognini, losing the first set 2-6 before coming back to win the match 6-4, 6-0. He had a fairly routine straight set victory against Lukasz Kubot, 6-4, 6-3, befoer reaching the quarterfinals and losing to Monaco.

Fernando is back in the top ten this week, thanks to a little help from Julien Benneteau. Benneteau defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week in the semifinals in Marseille, and because Jo couldn’t defend his title, he slipped in the rankings. So even though Fernando didn’t gain any points from his first round loss in Memphis, he re-enters the top ten! Fernando also has no points to defend this coming week (he did not play between the Australian Open and Indian Wells last year due to an injury) so depending on how Cilic does in Dubai, Fernando could possibly regain the #9 ranking in time for Indian Wells!

This is Fernando second trip to Acapulco. His first was back in 2004, when he reached the final (losing to compatriot Carlos Moya)

(via albierto mexicano)

Fernando is featured in the new Montenegro Method DVD along with fellow Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Carlos Moya. You can view more here as well as peek around the rest of the official site

“With just one day in between matches and in different conditions and not being able to practice on the stadium court before the match, it was difficult,” he said. “And it was difficult for me to get the timing. But he played a great match. He served really good.”

It’s a rough loss, but on the plus side, it gives Fernando almost two weeks off to rest, recover and heal his sciatic nerve injury before the upcoming March-April Masters tournaments. It also means that it may give him time to make himself available to play in Spain’s first round Davis Cup tie against Switzerland on March 5-7.

Some people never know what they were destined to be. Fernando Verdasco knew before he turned 1. Or at least according to a Verdasco family legend, which tells the story of a crying baby who could only be placated by the rhythmic thumping of a tennis ball on television.

“I don’t know if it was the sound of the ball or what, but when they put on a match I stopped crying. From that point forward, every time I cried they put tennis on,” Fernando says.

Since then, the 26-year-old athlete has gone on to have a successful tennis career, consistently ranking in the top 15 in the ATP World Singles rankings. So how does Verdasco stay in shape?

He’s got legs like tree trunks and knows that to succeed on the court he has to be strong all over, but Verdasco is all about what’s up top. “I like to work the upper body, shoulders, back. They are very important for tennis,” he says, preferring rows, flies and presses. And it shows, too. He generates about the most topspin on tour (rivaling Nadal) thanks to his upper-body strength and the torque it creates on his groundstrokes.

When it comes to nutrition, Fernando has good roots—his family owns three restaurants in his hometown of Madrid. He avoids junk food and greasy items in favor of a varied diet (veggies, pasta, meat and chicken) for adequate nutrition. “If you eat only lettuce, you won’t be able to hit a ball.”

Recently, Verdasco, who is featured in the new Montenegro Method DVD Series, had a chance to test out a series of exercise routines developed by Marta Montenegro. “I’ve made Marta’s exercises part of my daily routine. I enjoy all of them,” he says. You can view some of those exercises in our photo gallery.

Fernando will be featured in the March/April 2010 issue of SOBeFiT Magazine.

(via SOBeFiT)