ESTORIL, Portugal?This is my eighth day in Lisbon, and I?ve learned three things in Portuguese: obrigada (thank you), desculpe (sorry), and my new favorite thing to say, p�o p�o, queijo queijo. This last literally means ?bread bread, cheese cheese? and it?s the name of a bakery in Lisbon. Apart from it being fun to say (I pronounce it something like pow pow, kesh kesh, which is pretty wrong), there?s just something enjoyable about a metaphor for directness. I?m told it?s a way to describe someone who is straightforward, down-to-earth, someone with whom what you see is what you get. It?s also a way to characterize a situation: this is just how it is. It?s bread and cheese, p�o p�o, queijo queijo.
Somehow this comes to mind listening to Fernando Verdasco talk in his press conference after beating home favorite Frederico Gil, 6-1, 7-6 (5). When Verdasco is leading 6-1, 5-1, reeling off seemingly effortless winners while his opponent is just reeling, it seems like a bread-and-cheese match; last year?s Monte Carlo finalist and Barcelona champion beating the world No. 62 whose biggest achievement is reaching the final of this same tournament last year before losing to Albert Montanes. That?s not to denigrate the career of Gil, who?s rightfully beloved here as the highest-ranked player Portugal has ever had, but Verdasco really should be winning. There?s a gulf in class and it?s surely as simple as that.
Not quite. Serving for the match at 5-2, Verdasco throws in a double-fault, then an unforced error on the forehand. Gil finally gets his jumping cross-court backhand properly flattened out to draw another error, and then Verdasco, presented with a short ball and an open court, smacks it into the net. It?s the kind of error-strewn form that has seen him lose his first match in his last two tournaments, and when Gil survives a suicidal serve-and-volley and a break point in the next game to hold, it seems like Court Central is going to see another miracle. Presided over by two unobtrusive images of Our Lady of Fatima, Estoril?s stadium court resounds with long-drawn out shouts of ?Giiiil, Giiiiil,? unnerving Verdasco to the extent that he is broken to love in the next game. When Gil holds, the second seed has dropped five games in a row.
When I asked Verdasco later what happened, his answer is, like all the others, disarmingly honest: ?What happened was I didn?t play as well as I played before.? It?s also full to the point of rambling; Verdasco likes to talk, going through games point by point to recall exactly the mechanics of who did what and where the momentum was flowing at any one time. Simultaneously, he makes it all sound very simple: ?I just take this match, the positive part, that it was like a tough second set and maybe it?s gonna help me more for the next match or the next matches to win 6-1, 7-5 than 6-1, 6-2. But it?s not I think like a real thing, because he?s playing good tennis and I think it was not a real score to beat him today 6-1 6-2.?
In the end, it is pretty simple. Gil takes a minibreak but is unable to hold it and Verdasco is that little bit calmer, holding out for a 7-5 victory in the tiebreak and the match. Perhaps a tough win is what he needs right now to give him confidence and settle his game, and he?s cheerful in his press conference, even laughing about his beloved Real Madrid?s defeat to Barcelona. (?I didn?t watch it. I didn?t?No, I?m lying. I didn?t want to watch but I watched, unfortunately.?) It?s one of the uneasy negotiations in trying to cover a tennis tournament when you?re a fan; it?s so easy to be favorably prejudiced towards someone when they look you in the eye and try their best to give you a good answer to your question. It?s not easy necessarily to tell it how it is, to be bread-and-cheese about it. It?s tempting to get lost in a collaborative relationship, to believe that everyone?fans, players, press, tournaments, tours?is working together happily to make the tennis world a better place.
To a certain extent, that?s true. But there are also conflicts of interest and behind-the-scenes dramas that are difficult to decipher. The elephant in this press room is that Verdasco is partly playing this week in Estoril because he didn?t play last week at the Barcelona Banc Sabadell Open, an ATP 500 tournament where he is the defending champion. Verdasco had previously made a statement regarding his reasons for not defending the ranking points he earned last year: ?"The reason I?m not going Barcelona?ask the tournament officials who decide who they want to play [?] Nadal is coming back and there?s a person whom I?m not going to say who it is, but who has had no interest in me playing.? The tournament responded that Verdasco didn?t sign in to play the tournament but was welcome to take a wild card.
Asked to clarify the matter, Verdasco tells it like he sees it. ?If I didn?t play the tournament it is because Fernando Soler, the guy from IMG that a lot of people know, a lot of players know, he?s the guy who speaks with the top players and decide which top players they want to play. They [Real Club de Tenis Barcelona] want me to play. Costa, he wants me to play. I want to play. But if this guy treat me without respect after I won last year the tournament, I will not play. I don?t care if they give me guarantees, they give me money. It?s just I think one thing of respect, not one thing of money.?
Appearance fees, or as they are sometimes known, guarantees, are a thorny subject in the tennis world. It?s widely known that the top players often get paid a flat fee to play in optional, smaller tournaments, but no-one talks much about it. Questioned by several reporters as to the details of the lack of respect shown to him by Soler, Verdasco does not elaborate, but vehemently insists it?s not purely a question of money. ?It?s not about the money and I said many times no to tournaments when they give me a big guarantee. Why? Because it was not the right week or the right tournament or I think that it was better to train. It?s not about the money, it?s about the points and to be a better player. Of course, money?s good, you know?? He smiles. ?I will not lie?But I, you know, my reason to play a tournament is not because they give me [a] guarantee. It?s because they are good for my calendar, and to make me a better player and to have a better ranking.?
More worrying perhaps is the suggestion that he is not the only Spanish player to have been treated badly by Soler. He goes out of his way to be respectful towards Nadal, who is an IMG player but ?he?s the one that everybody respects, they respect Rafa the most and he deserve everything, so he plays. But after Rafa many other players, they play Barcelona and I don?t think they treat them well?Then it?s fine and I respect everyone but I don?t know the reason to play in that conditions. I prefer like I said to rest, to train that week and play in other tournaments. Even if I lose the points, that is what is most important for a tennis player, the points and the rankings. I lost a lot of ranking right now just because I couldn?t play that tournament.?
It?s true that the loss of his ranking points from Barcelona is a major factor in Verdasco?s slide out of the top 10 to no. 13. Yet the Spaniard seems free from bitterness. He?s discussing the situation, it?s true, but because he?s been asked to and in a remarkably guileless way as if ignorant of any trouble it may cause for him in the future. He?s telling it like it is; he?s p�o p�o, queijo queijo. ?I?m so sorry because I would love to play, and I am so sorry for my fans in Barcelona, for my friends in Barcelona. [I] have a lot of people think that because I?m from Madrid I don?t like to play in Barcelona. That?s bullshit, that?s not the truth. I love to play in Barcelona, I love to play in Spain, and I would love to play in Barcelona every year but if they don?t treat me like they?re supposed to do, I will not play.?
It all sounds very simple. Tomorrow, when his comments are repeated?apparently he goes even further in the Spanish-language section of the press conference?it might not seem so simple.
Source: http://feeds.tennis.com/~r/tenniscom-features/~3/fy6ciAH_JzU/
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