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MUTUA MADRID OPENMay 5, 2015Fernando VerdascoMADRID, SPAIN F. VERDASCO/G. Garcia‑Lopez THE MODERATOR: Questions in Spanish, please. Q. I would like to know how do you face the next match against Cilic? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, similar to today's: I'll try to play my game. Let's see if I manage to do that. You know, he serves great and he's a very good player. He has a really good forehand and backhand. He strikes the ball very hard. You know, he's the champion of the US Open. I know it's going to be a very tight and tough match. At the end of the day, I'm playing home. Hopefully the fact of playing at home will help me, will give me that extra energy that I need to finish the match tomorrow and to get it on my side. Q. I would like to know how did you feel during the match? In the first set you were down. FERNANDO VERDASCO: Yeah, well, he started very strong. He was playing really nicely. Generally he was playing very well. He was also playing very close to the lines and I didn't have space, I didn't have any margin to play my game. So that always happens in tennis. When someone plays really well the opponent can't play so well because he doesn't allow you to play your game. After that I started playing more aggressively, striking the ball a little bit better, and he was playing a little bit shorter. Then the match just turned around. I think that's thanks to that. But here in Madrid also due to the altitude it was a little bit windy and it was getting more windy, so that made a difference. It was not easy. It was not easy to control the ball. You have to be very focused in every single point. You have to stay on the positive sides, because sometimes you commit errors that you strike the ball in the right way but you miss it. Little by little I started to feel better, and in the second and third set I thought I had a really good level. Q. How do you feel in this tournament? How do you rank it against Roland Garros? What are your expectations in this tournament? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, you know, Roland Garros, I'm still not thinking about that. It's really far away. For me, this tournament is too important to think about Roland Garros. I'll just think about this tournament. Right now and until I finish here in Madrid, I'm 100% focused on this tournament. I will give all I can and play as good as possible and go as far as I can. I have a tough, tough draw. Not only tomorrow's match, but the next one will be complicated. All of them are complicated. All of the seeded players, I will have to play against them, and they are really hard. I just want to go day by day and give my maximum and see where I can get. I will face them with joy. I really want to do well and make it far in this tournament. As I said before, this is a tournament of my city, and it's very special for me. Makes me happy to be able to play well. Q. You're a veteran on the circuit. I don't know in which moment you find yourself. Maybe you have some up and downs. What are you lacking to get that regularity that you need, that consistency? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, at the end of the day, few players make it every single week to the semis or finals. When you play a lot of tournaments in a row, like my case for example, I've been playing since Indian Wells to Barcelona without resting a single week; I'm playing five tournaments in a row. It's normal that in the last tournament you don't have so much strength or so much energy. Perhaps your game is not the best at the end of that stretch. I think it was nice to have some days off last week. I didn't play a tournament last week because I really couldn't play more. I didn't have energy. Now I feel I'm well‑prepared for this tournament, which as I said is very important. I'm feeling much better. I have more energy, more motivation, and I'm really looking forward to it. Perhaps I'm looking forward more to that than like Monte‑Carlo, Barcelona where I had played a lot of weeks before. This one I'm more prepared for. It's tough. It's tough to play well every single week, but in tennis you have to just focus on the moment that you are right now and just forget anything else. You have to forget the past, whether you did good or bad, and you have to try to look for the good feelings, to be out there on the court with good feelings. You have to try to find them. Once you have found them, you try to hold onto them so they're with you as long as possible. Q. I would like to know what were your first thoughts when you went out there on the central court? How did you settle yourself? What do you expect here in Madrid? FERNANDO VERDASCO: Well, I think that I have already answered this question before. I said that I want to make it as far as possible. I've been training well; I find myself well. I want to do as good as possible because it's the tournament of my city. I feel better, you know. It's a little bit complicated when you play home the first games because you want to play really well, especially when the other player is striking the ball pretty well, like he did, when he's playing close to the lines. That's what happened today. Guillermo today played really close to the lines. Little by little I tried to get more focus. I had more confidence, I was striking the ball better, and I just went from being dominating to being the dominating one in most of the points. I think that that made the difference and I could turn around the match. Q. We have been talking about the possibility of playing the finals to five sets. Rafa Nadal said that's fine. David said he didn't like it so much. What do you think about playing finals to five sets? FERNANDO VERDASCO: First of all, I want to make it to the finals. Once I make it to the finals I will choose if I prefer to play three or five sets. But I think that it's better to play them three sets. And not because of me. I like to play to five sets. But if there are tournaments that are so close as we have, I think playing a final here in Madrid in five sets, Djokovic, Rafa, Federer, whatever, after two days to just play Rome, it's not helpful. I think it wouldn't be helpful. You spend a lot of energy, and in two days' time you have to start again from zero. So I think I'm more on David's side, even though I like to play to five sets. Q. The other day we asked Rafa if when Djokovic is not here does the draw open a little bit. He said that he was not the favorite for the tournament. How do you see Rafa? FERNANDO VERDASCO: How do I see him? I see him well. Maybe he said he's not the favorite so that he doesn't have so much pressure on him, you know, perhaps because of the pressure he has because he's playing home or defending the title. But it's clear that he is one of the favorites here in Madrid. He came here on Wednesday afternoon. Actually I trained with him on Wednesday for two hours. As soon as he plays a couple of matches he's going to be for sure one of the favorites to win the tournament. Even if Djokovic was here, I think once Rafa has his rhythm and once he builds up his confidence here in altitude where maybe the first day can be complicated for you even if you've trained a couple days before, I think that once he has all that, he's going to be one of the favorites to win here. Federer could also be one of them. But I think that Federer and Rafa are clearly the favorites to win the tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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