Rafael Nadal

I am lucky because my family are comfortably off. My father has his own glass business.

I didn’t play a great match, but once I pass the first two rounds, things get easier. I’m used to the court and the conditions.

If you are playing bad you are going to lose here, on clay, on ice, or on the beach.

We’ll try and be very aggressive, we’ll try and speed up and change gears, and we’ll see who’s going to win.

My parents’ divorce made an important change in my life. It affected me.

I take pleasure in tennis and the hope that it requires.

Don’t think about being the number one in the world, try instead to get through today’s program as well as you can. Then we will see whether one day you’ll end up as number one or number 100.

However great your dedication, you never win anything on your own

My tennis is aggressive, though I wouldn’t say that it’s more physical than technical. I rely more on technique than physique, but being physical is always a help to me.

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

I am a guy who likes to do what I am doing with passion, whether it’s a soccer match with friends or golf.

No one is perfect. Everybody does stupid things.

All sports are continuously developing, but what they all have in common is that the speed is increasing. That’s also true of tennis; the ball is getting faster and faster.

I feel that love. I feel that energy. I always felt that energy when I’m playing in New York.

I haven’t lost a war. No one got killed. I just lost a tennis match.

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

Some people get very confused about my game. They think it’s better if the court is slow, because I have a good defence. But the faster it is, the better for me. My spin is more painful for my opponents, my aggressive game works better.

People who know me said I will win one or two Premierships and will not be interested after that. The reality is that we’ve won two Premierships but I’m more excited about this particular season than last year or the year before. I am a fan of special nature. I’m getting excited before every single game. The trophy at the end is less important than the process itself.

For sure, with golf it’s not a physically demanding sport like tennis. That’s what makes tennis great – you combine both things. It’s a very mental sport and at the same time can be dramatically physical. But I do admire the mentality of sport more than the physicality because physical performance is much easier to practice than mental performance.

I love this game, I love this sport, I love this league. Why don’t I get my own team?

The bad thing about the tennis calendar is how it is made and obligates you to play tournaments all year. If you want to achieve the most you can and go as high up in the rankings as you can, you have to play from the start to the finish because there are important tournaments from the beginning to the end.