Verdasco excited for finals

Verdasco: In final eight

I am so happy to have qualified. It is such a big thing to finish among the top-eight

Fernando Verdasco
Quotes of the week

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Fernando Verdasco is looking forward to making his debut appearance at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The Spaniard clinched the eighth and final spot in the elite singles field of the tournament, which gets underway at The O2 arena next week, when Robin Soderling of Sweden and Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost their quarter-final matches in Paris.

The all-star London line-up features Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko, who also qualified in Paris, and Verdasco.

The 26-year-old will make his first outing at the season finale as the only member of the eight finalists who did not qualify for the event last year.

"I am so happy to have qualified. It is such a big thing to finish among the top-eight," said Verdasco.

Enjoy

"It is a new experience for me, my first time there. I will try my best as usual and enjoy it as much as I can.

"I have heard so many good things about the venue in London and I look forward to competing there against the best players in front of so many fans."

This year marked the best of Verdasco's career so far, with the Madrid native climbing to a personal-best number seven in the ATP world rankings in April and capturing his third ATP World Tour title in New Haven.

Verdasco, who also reached finals in Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur, achieved a career-best 15-4 mark in Grand Slam play, highlighted by a run to the Australia Open semi-finals, where he pushed Nadal to an epic five-set marathon.

Following that result, other than one week in August, Verdasco was placed in the top 10 of the world rankings every week for the rest of the season.