|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAUMarch 29, 2015Fernando VerdascoMIAMI, FLORIDA F. VERDASCO/R. Nadal THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. After the second set, what was going through your mind? Because you had played well the first set, and then you lost two breaks in a row. You were broken twice to lose the second set. FERNANDO VERDASCO: Yeah, well, what I said on the court right after the match, no? They asked me the same. I said that I was just trying to think about how the first set, how I played the first set, and tried to get back that feeling and that sensations. This is the only thing that I was just thinking of, no? Just tried to play back again as I was the first set. So tried to keep calm and be aggressive, but of course at the same time you cannot be very aggressive. Is very windy, and many times you need to adjust. Even like that, it was hard. So just to play point by point and try my best. Q. Considering the place and the opponent, how do you rank the importance of this victory? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, I mean, is very important. Obviously always beating a player like Rafa is the same like if you beat, I mean, Murray or Federer or these guys. Is one of the biggest victories that you can have in tennis. Of course is a huge victory, and it's always really nice to feel, you know, in a packed stadium or almost packed stadium in a very important tournament like this one and playing against one of the best players in history. You know, at the end you just try to enjoy the moment also. Not even winning or losing. You always try to win, but enjoy the moment. And I think that, you know, with the years you know more about that. When I was playing in these kind of conditions with 21 or 22 years old, it was different mentality than now. So is what I'm trying to do, and today was a good day. I played good and I win, so what can I say? I'm very happy, and now I just need to try to rest and be ready for the next one. Q. So when you enter a match playing a top player like Rafa, do you do anything different mentally to prepare yourself going into that kind of match? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, just the adrenaline and, you know, like everything about a match like the one today, you don't even need to almost warm up. Just thinking about what kind of match are you going to play, your body is pumped, is ready for that. Of course you try to make some stretching, try to move a little bit, but you need it much less than in maybe another match, a regular match. So it's always like, you know, like special, special mentality. You know that you are playing against one of the best. You don't have, at the end, nothing to lose. He's the one that normally, when you play not only with Rafa, I say like when you play somebody like him, even with Roger or Novak or all these guys, normally they supposed to win against one player like me. So I just try to give my best. Sometimes, you know, of course less times than I would like to I finish with victory, but every time I try, no? And today was one of these days, of course. So I need to enjoy it so much, but at the end, the experience told me already when you have a victory like this one, you know, you need to be very careful. You need to stay still focused on the tournament. It's not that you won the tournament already and you can go home. I still have more matches to come. The next one is in two days, so I need to keep focused on the tournament. You know, your friends are asking all the time, Are you going to celebrate? I say like, Not yet. If I go to celebrate today and tomorrow, then the next day I'm going to lose for sure. It's tough, no, that part in tennis, but I'm happy anyways. Q. One of the things that Rafa mentioned at his press conference was that he's not playing with as much freedom or he feels like nervous since he's come back. This is like the 15th time that you've played. Did you sense from your part that something was different from your past experiences with him? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, we played each other many times, and everything happened. I mean, in 15 times, also the times that we played each other before being professional, when we were kids. I mean, 15, 17, 16. Everything happen in our matches. He beat me like 0 and 1 in finals of Monte‑Carlo, and then another one was 7‑6, 6‑7, 7‑6. You know, and at the end, since last time that I beat him in Madrid, it was 13 times in a row for him. Some very easy and some of them for me having even match points. The feelings, I mean, every match is different. Some matches you feel unbelievable. Some matches you don't feel that good. And the match of today, of course the conditions was not easy to play. I mean, the wind was tough. It was moving the ball around all the time. It was tough for him. It was tough for me. But I guess that today I adapt myself better than him in the day. He normally is one of the players, what I think, that is one of the best with these kind of wind. I saw him beating, for example, the finals in Indian Wells a few years ago Andy Murray like 6‑2, 6‑1, and it was unbelievable windy. I know he's a tough player when it's windy like today, but maybe today he was not feeling good. I don't know. I'm not inside of him. So that's him the one that needs to say about his feelings, not me. What I saw is that of course with this wind he was missing more than normal, but also I was missing also a lot when, you know, the ball was moving and it was not easy to adjust and hit the ball where you wanted to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|