© ATP
Today I practised with Nicolas Almagro, trained a little bit and went to the stands to watch a clash of Spaniards: Carlos Moya against Fernando Verdasco. When the first set ended, I headed to the hotel.

Moya is a great person, a guide for us, the veteran. We consider him our father. He has taught us many things, how to manage ourselves, from the important issues to the small details.

The very first final match I played was against him, six years ago in Umag. He beat me pretty easily. He's always been a great guy. He keeps a special relationship with Nadal. Rafa still admires Carlos even though the former is the star now. Carlos has been the first No. 1 tennis player from Mallorca and Rafa wants to follow his steps. He knows what he has to do now; he doesn't need much counseling.

Today I went for lunch with both of them. Rome is, after Spain, where we eat best. You can tell by the photo that it was busy today... you have to arrive early to find a place. We Spaniards always try to eat together.

The best thing you can try here is mozzarella. I love it, it's the Italian specialty, amazing cheese. Pizza is forbidden for me, but when they add mozzarella to pasta, you can notice the difference. The one here is special, different from the one you can find in other countries.

Tomorrow I'll play a difficult opponent, Radek Stepanek. He always tries to go to the net and has a great volley. It will be a tough match for sure. I don't know if I would call it strange, but different from what I'm used to play on clay. Let's see how it goes...

David

© ATP
Hello everyone,

The Barcelona final match against Rafa was extremely demanding. I rested a little bit and, today, our plane took off to Rome, a flight that took an hour and a half. We reached the hotel at 1 p.m., asked for lunch service in the room and took a nap, since I was exhausted. At 7pm I practised for a while and run for half an hour.

I shared the trip with Rafa, also with Toni Nadal and Alex Corretja. When we share a flight, we talk about anything but tennis, even though we had just played a final match. We chatted about soccer, about Real Madrid, who has just won the Spanish League. Rafa is a crazy Madrid fan. I support Barcelona, so I only had to congratulate him. It hurt, but I had to!

On days like this, in between tournaments, I try to relax a little bit. The recovery techniques include a lot of massage and stretching, which are important after playing a tough match against a great player like Nadal.

I've been lucky to have a steady performance during the tournaments played in Spain, having won the title in Valencia and playing the deciding match in Barcelona. I received lots of text messages, especially from my family and friends. Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero texted me as well, since Barcelona means a lot to us. My friends from Jávea, my home city, called me as well.

My goal is to succeed in the Masters Series tournaments, especially in Rome. If I don't count the semifinal I played in 2005, I never did well here.

The city is beautiful. I hope I have more time to go round, since I lost in the early rounds lately and left Rome in the same day. I was able to visit downtown once, four years ago, and went to the Coliseum at night. This city is ancient, full of history, and you can even breath that here...

David