FERNANDO VERDASCO is a typical Madrileno: he enjoys bull fighting and is a Real Madrid fanatic.
Rafa Nadal may be Mallorcan, but his footballing sympathies also lie with Los Blancos, and roving Primera Liga television coverage often switches to shots of the off-duty world No.5 celebrating his side's golazos in the Bernabeu directors' box.
The 29-year-old Verdasco is, surprisingly, the first left-hander Andy Murray will face this year, and he plans to reach out to his fellow Madridista and Davis Cup team-mate as the hours tick down to his first Wimbledon quarter-final appearance. Three times, after all, left-handed Nadal has put an end to the Scot's dreams of success at SW19. "I haven't spoken to him, no," said Verdasco with a smile, "but maybe I will call him tonight."
Murray grew up playing against a left-hander in the form of his brother Jamie, and made sure to practise with another yesterday in the Swedish doubles expert Johan Brunstrom, so the Spaniard probably is right when he says one quirk of ATP tour scheduling shouldn't exert too much of an influence. "That will be one point but it is not the most important point," he said. "He [Murray] has played against lefty players many times, so I don't think it will be a problem for him."
Having previously been as high as No.7 in the world – he was working with Andre Agassi's fitness trainer Gil Reyes and beat the Scot en route to the 2009 Australian Open semi-final – he is only the 54th best player in the world, albeit working his painstaking way back through the rankings under a new coach, Ricardo Sanchez.
Having reached his first SW19 quarter-final at the 11th attempt, dropping just one set and three service breaks all tournament, the question is whether he is back at that level. The answer will only come when the dust has settled on Centre Court today.
"I don't know what has been the key [to his recent improvements]," said Verdasco. "I have just been working hard and trying my best. Finally, I have maybe got to my best level on grass. I am happy with the way I am playing."
Remarkably, part of his success appears to be down to singing and dancing along to a Flamenco artist called El Fary. Sanchez, who shares a love for this music with Verdasco's father, Jose, explained how songs like Tortido Guapo and El Dinero had helped put a smile on the player's face again. The refrain in El Dinero goes something like this: 'you earn the money, you spend the money'.
"Fernando and his father, Jose, we remember one popular Spanish singer who was very funny," said Sanchez. "He died a few years ago, but we like the music so every day we put the music on when we arrive at the hotel here to take a little bit of stress out of Fernando before matches. I hope he will do another dance tomorrow."
A sign of Verdasco's restlessness is his tendancy to break the golden rule of tennis by changing rackets. He is on to his third one this year, one which enables him to generate more pace on his groundstrokes, while he has also become more accurate on both serve and volley through rigorous hitting into baskets which have been strategically placed around the practice court.
Murray, having won eight of their nine previous encounters, is justifiably favourite. "We have respect for Andy because he is a great player and a big fighter," Sanchez said. "The keys on grass are that you need to serve good and return good. If you serve well and start the point well, you dominate. If you return well and hit the next shot well, you dominate also.
"Andy plays at home and I think he is very good on grass but we have played four matches and lost one set," he added.
"We have been here for the last 15 days on grass and we are ready. We will be playing to win."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article