Rafael Nadal

There are many moments during a match when you are tense, wrestling with yourself. Tennis is a lesson in self-control.

We should try to teach the young people values that are useful to them whether they become professional athletes or not.

I started to travel like this at the age of 15 so for me, it’s normal. Some days you get tired and you feel, ‘I want to stay at home a little bit more,’ but it’s only the moment.

I am going to fight for important things.

My serve can get better, for sure. It’s not just about serving bombs, but positioning, variation in speed, in spin.

When one player is better than you, at this moment, the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time. I’m going to wait and I’m going to try a sixth time. And if the sixth doesn’t happen, a seventh. It’s going to be like this. That’s the spirit of sport.

I’m lucky enough to do what I like for work – not everyone’s that fortunate.

I’m not a God, I make mistakes.

Always I believe that I can play better. But I am happy.

It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.

I started to travel like this at the age of 15 so for me, it’s normal. Some days you get tired and you feel, ‘I want to stay at home a little bit more,’ but it’s only the moment.

More than anything, believe that you can win.

My serve can get better, for sure. It’s not just about serving bombs, but positioning, variation in speed, in spin.

In your career you have a lot of good moments and bad ones. The important thing is to have enough motivation to keep working all the days with humility and trying to be a better player than before. I am going to try to continue doing this.

If somebody says I am better than Roger, I think this person doesn’t know anything about tennis.

Tennis is a hard sport. There is a lot of competition all year and you play alone.

Because, to give a goal, the ball must be 100% in and he must be 100% sure that the ball is in.

The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There’s no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.

It’s already a great feeling to be third on the list. To get past Borg, I will have to reach the final in Barcelona next week. It won?t be easy. I could lose any day. But if I am 100 per cent I know I have a great chance of winning.

It’s not that difficult to play well and win titles in a team like Barcelona, but it’s in the national side where you see a player’s true class. That was the case with figures like Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. With Spain, Iniesta has shown that he is among the best players of all time and that’s why I rate him higher than Messi or Ronaldo. Even though the latter two have incredible scoring records for their clubs, they still haven’t won anything with Argentina or Portugal respectively.

I love the crowds in Miami. I feel that is one of the tournaments where I get more support. That helps me a lot.