Those who keep company with the elite soon come to realise that only the very best will suffice for themselves. So be it sharing a dinner table with the galacticos of Real Madrid or listening to Andre Agassi expounding about the do’s and don’ts of tennis, then Fernando Verdasco has assimilated enough talk of the top to crave his own success.

Verdasco could be termed one of life’s more fortunate individuals. Financial hardship was never going to be a concern for the only son born into one of Madrid’s forefront culinary families. His father Jose owns three restaurants frequented by the Spanish capital’s rich and famous; reservations always available for the likes of David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Raul, Luis Figo or today’s heroes of the Santiago Bernabéu such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka.

The term playboy could easily have been applied to Fernando a few years ago as he amassed an impressive list of A-list girlfriends, roared around town in a distinctive yellow Porsche, posed nude for Cosmopolitan magazine and seemed content with a competitive position on the several paces behind the main rank of the ATP World Tour. He is of course Spanish, left-handed, physically bullish and dark haired but there the similarities to another committed fan of Real Madrid seemed to end. For Rafa Nadal, tennis was everything, but Fernando Verdasco had many other options for enjoyment.

This week as Nadal enjoyed a week of rest and recuperation after a tiring Chinese swing involving tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai, playing golf with Sergio Garcia in Castellon, agonising in the VIP seats of the Bernabéu as AC Milan rallied from behind to beat Real Madrid in the Champions League and then returning home to cast his fishing line off the coast of his native Majorca, Verdasco was far away and relaxation was not on the agenda.

Verdasco’s whereabouts have not been the men’s tournaments in Moscow or Stockholm where he might possibly have been improving his mathematical chances of clinching one of the two remaining places for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London’s 02 Arena. Instead the 25-year-old has been pounding up perhaps the most famed incline in Nevada’s desert, just outside the city of Las Vegas. “Right now I realise that tennis is all about hard work and you only get out what you put in,” he said. "The people I work with in Las Vegas have made that clear but I didn’t really need telling. My aim is to cement my place in the world’s top playing group and by that I mean those who play London. It is my aim, my goal, and running up Magic Mountain again and again, besides hours and hours of gym work and plenty of practice court sessions, will get me there. Or that is what I am hoping.”

Gil Reyes, Darren Cahill and the aforementioned Andre Agassi proved themselves quite a triumvirate in the later stages of the former world No 1’s career.

Reyes, the conditioning guru, had long been a fixture in the Agassi camp - a giant of a man, who on first appearance seemed more like a security guard than an advisor but ultimately responsible for the fitness that allowed Agassi to contest the big events beyond his 36th birthday. Cahill is the astute coach who previously charted Lleyton Hewitt’s path to the top and recently eschewed the opportunity to work permanently with Roger Federer. The prospect of basing himself in Las Vegas as part of the adidas elite coaching scheme and a regular seat in ESPN’s commentary chair at the big events proved more appealing to Cahill than working with arguably the finest player that ever swung a racket.

Agassi was only able to spend a few hours with Verdasco when he arrived from Shanghai before setting off in an Asian direction himself to play a series of exhibition matches with his great rival Pete Sampras, but the AA message is already deeply entrenched in Verdasco’s mind. “Talking to Andre and picking up on his knowledge and wisdom has been so valuable,” said the Spaniard, intent on honing his fitness and giving his game an extra edge for the upcoming weeks where the climax of 2009 could become the most exciting weeks of his career. “He’s told me things to do and things not to do. He made it clear that I should trust in my game but think more about things around it. Tactically he’s been so good but I’m not going to tell the secrets he has told me because that would be disrespectful to him. However, he has made it clear that playing too many tournaments is not wise and training preparation weeks like this are so important. This year I think I have arranged my schedule in the way Andre has advised and hopefully it should get me to London.”

Reyes' input is shown through Verdasco's increased endurance, which manifested itself in a much more forceful serve and sufficient strength that allowed him to battle with Nadal for five and a quarter hours of an Australian Open semi-final this year that is revered as a classic encounter. Cahill has added extra dimensions to the all round game and Verdasco, who has long travelled without a coach, said: “If Darren was willing I would have him with me all the time but Roger said the same. At least I am lucky that I get this much of his knowledge.”

Until the middle of last year, Verdasco could be termed very much a nearly man. He seemed destined never to crack the world’s top 20 and appeared satisfied with a globetrotting existence interspersed by glittering stops back home in Madrid. “Life was good, no?” he says in that characteristic Spanish way that always ends with a questioning negative. “Maybe the players from Spain were content because Rafa was way out in front and we were happy to just do what we did. At home my parents have the restaurants; Café de Chinitas, La Bola and La Canada. The Real Madrid players came often; Beckham many times and also to my birthday party, also Iker Casillas, Guti, Sergio Ramos, Raul. It was all very enjoyable but then I decided I wanted more from my tennis. I really wanted to achieve and knew I had to change many things.”

Then something quite cathartic happened to Verdasco. The pain in Nadal’s knees got worse to the extent he was unable to spearhead the Spanish team in last year’s most exacting Davis Cup final against Argentina in Buenos Aires. Spain needed a hero in an atmosphere as inhospitable as anything in tennis. With Spain standing at 1-1 after day one, the then captain Emilio Sanchez sat Verdasco down and reminded him of the situation’s potential. The response was exemplary; Verdasco and his lifelong friend and fellow Madridista Feliciano Lopez beat the Argentine duo of Agustin Calleri and David Nalbandian in the doubles. Then Sanchez substituted Verdasco for an out-of-sorts David Ferrer in the first of the reverse singles and he played with a previously unimaginable spirit to come from behind and beat Jose Acasuso in five sets to clinch the trophy.

“In many ways that was the weekend that changed my life but very important too was the first time I spent time with the guys in Las Vegas because that showed me what I needed to change and how much I must work,” he says. “This year we are in the Davis Cup final again, this time against the Czechs in Barcelona, and hopefully Rafa will be fit to play. But I am going to be there too and hopefully I will play in singles and doubles too with Feliciano.

“But first there is London and I have said that to get there as one of the top eight in the world alongside Rafa and Roger and the others is my aim for this year. I want to prove I belong. I will work so hard out in Vegas and then return to hopefully get the necessary qualifying points at the tournaments in Valencia and Paris. I know what I must do.”

A glance down the list of Verdasco’s results this year shows that for the most part it has taken the quality players to beat him; Nadal on the clay of Rome and Madrid as well as Melbourne’s cement, Federer at Indian Wells, Novak Djokovic at the US Open and Monte Carlo, Andy Murray in Miami. The signs are there that he can contest with the best. Fernando Verdasco has the next few weeks to provide proof.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals take place from the November 22-29. For the last remaining tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk