Verdasco: “You have to keep going until that animal is gone”

at the age of 38 Ferdinand Verdascowho became seventh in the ATP rankings, tennis is considered to be like a person with a parasite in his gutwhich he must feed first, if he wishes to live in peace.

“You have to keep going until that animal dies, like an internal fire, or they kill it for you because sometimes the bug says, I want to play, but the knee won’t let you take two steps or the elbow won’t let you serve,” the three-time Davis Cup champion told Efe in an interview.

Comparing passion to a type of tapeworm is an idea that Verdasco took from his father-in-law, the Nobel Prize winner for literature Mario Vargas Llosa, who in one of his books compared the situation of the writer to a person carrying a tapeworm. within. Feed the “animal”; then just living.

Verdasco appeared this week in Los Cabos fully recovered from elbow surgery, his third operation in a year and a half, as a result of which he fell to 125th place in the ranking. In the Mexican city he lost in three sets against Australian Thanakis Kokkinakis. However, he left a message: he still has tennis left to return to the top 100.

With seven titles as a professional, earning more than 18 million dollars and victories against all the great players of this century except the Swiss Roger Federer, the man from Madrid has the merits to retire, but he does not consider it because he wants to give himself the luxury of walk out of court innocently a person singing in the shower.

“There are players who love tennis more than anything, I am one of them. I like a phrase from Federer, who wonders why stop playing if he loves the game and is good at it“, says Verdasco, if they ask him his reasons for continuing.

Recovered from covid and the scalpel scars, but not from that sharp blade that passes time, the Spaniard has little left of the long hair that dreams that at the age of 19 appeared in the Acapulco tournament and reached the final . After that, he conquered the world, but he loved that rebel.

“Ugh. If I could have stood up to myself in 2004, I would have told him the things I know now to make his career and life better.. I will make the good decisions, but I want to make the bad ones better or worse,” he said, though he was not late yesterday.

He has three wins over Rafa Nadal and four over Novak Djokovicthe two players with the most Grand Slam titles, however he is best remembered by tennis people for one loss, that of the 2009 Australian Open semifinal after more than five hours against Nadal.

“Sometimes the memory comes back to me and other times people bring it back to me; this is the most iconic match of my career, Australian Open semifinals against the number one in the world, the two Spaniards, a match of more than five hours; the level is awesome. Years and years later, someone stopped me on the street and told me it was the best match he’d ever seen in his life,” he revealed.

On that occasion Verdasco conceded 21 “aces” to Rafa and saved 16 break points, a feat if done against the strongest minded player on tour. However, he had one slip in the closing and that’s where the victory went.

“On the one hand, it consoles me and makes me happy to have played well; on the other hand, you remember it and say: my mother, yes, it was 4-4 in the fifth set, 0-30, second. serve, I missed a return and , I don’t know. Then the final escaped me so I could get against Federer,” he said.

Verdasco has a knack for playing tennis, but, like Vargas Llosa, he doesn’t trust talent because he believes that the key to advancement is work.

“Mario said and he was right. All players need work, work and more work, talent alone is not enough. Federer may at first glance be the most talented in history because he is the best player, but he certainly trained hard; Nadal, let’s not talk about it; Djokovic, the same”, thought.

Fernando is thinking about his 39th birthday, on November 15, and hopes to celebrate it in the top 100 in the ranking, a goal he believes is accessible, if he stays healthy. In any case, the finish line does not keep him up at night because at this point he goes through the tour above good and bad.

“I count myself among those who love to play tennis, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today. I think I will hold out as long as I can because I love it and I enjoy it. Even if he loses, in the end no one wants to lose,” he says.

He says it without pleasure and then reinforces his dimension as a man, as a man who is tired of winning and collapses before a hungry animal can get into his intestines, as he tries to call his passion for tennis .