The Spanish Team's Pre-Draw Presser ...

After the high jinks of the radio interview, today the Spanish boys got down to business in the ipress conference. Most questions were directed to Rafa, but here are some soundbites from the team ...

Rafa: "We always play for Spain all around the world, but in DavisCup we do it as a team."

Feliciano Lopez about the doubles defeat in the semis: "We will learn from our mistakes, we have prepared the doubles better this time"

Fernando Verdasco also about the doubles defeat: "What happened in Cordoba must no happen again"

Some more words from the Spanish team ...

“It’s a pleasure playing in front of my crowd, in front of the Spanish people,” said Nadal. “Always the feeling is very special when that happens. We’re all very excited and we’ll try to play our best and win.”

Nadal has every reason to be confident. The Spanish team swept aside Belgium, USA and France en route to the Final and now, playing on clay at the Olympic Stadium in Seville, benefit from home advantage against Argentina.

“I think maybe we are a bit the favourites, but we have to show it on the court,” said Spanish captain Albert Costa. “They are a very strong team and they play very good in Davis Cup, so it’s going to be tough for sure.”

“My colleagues did a fabulous job in 2008,” said Nadal. “Argentina had a lot of pressure on their shoulders then. They saw the opportunity but there was a lot of internal disagreement. Then they met my teammates. It’s the same pressure now, they still need to win. We’ve done it before so that makes us a bit calmer.”

Nadal has only ever lost one best-of-five-sets match on clay, against Robin Soderling in 2009, and is considered by many as the greatest clay-courter of all time, so the conditions inside the Olympic Stadium are tailor made for the six-time Roland Garros champion.

And if the invincibility of Nadal doesn’t make Argentina’s job difficult enough then Ferrer, the Spanish No. 2, is certainly no slouch on clay either. The world No. 5 is one of the most consistent players in the men’s game and comes into the Final with an impressive 16-4 win-loss record in Davis Cup play.

All the signs are pointing to a home win, but this is Davis Cup and anything can happen. If Argentina are looking for a chink in the Spanish armour then they will take solace from the fact that their opposition appear slightly jaded at the end of a long season.

Nadal and Ferrer both played at the ATP World Tour Finals in London last week and suffered two defeats each, while the Argentines have been putting their full concentration into this Final.

“We’re all tired, physically tired, but this is a Final so it’s the last push,” said Ferrer. “We want to get this victory. We want to do it at all tournaments, but for us this is very important.”

“We’ve learned from our mistakes,” said Lopez. “In Cordoba (in the semifinals) things didn’t work out as we wanted, but we’ve trained in Barcelona this week and prepared differently to in the past. We’ve been practicing a lot especially to get this win.”

You can read more here at this link to the Davis Cup website.

You can see a TVE video of the presser at this link.