Rafael Nadal

I still take advice from my mum on what clothes look good on me. I used to listen to her a lot more, but I’ve started to choose my own things from time to time.

I live where I would like to live. I live in Majorca, Spain, and I am not sure there are better places.

In the second, I told myself just to hold my serve and try and be aggressive on his serve, and hopefully get a break. I also applied more topspin on my forehand. Once I won the second game after being 0-30 down, my confidence also went up.

I always think about victory. It was very important for me to stay in this final. If I play my best I have a chance (against Federer). I’m going to play aggressively, with determination.

I used to wear sleeveless T-shirts all the time on court, but now I’ve got a brand new look – I’ve moved on to polo shirts. Sleeveless T-shirts give you real freedom of movement and they keep you cooler in matches, but I just thought it was time for a change.

Tennis is beautiful when you can see tactics, when players don’t just react but are able to act and think.

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

Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.

The fifth set is not about tennis, it’s about nerves.

Tennis is beautiful when you can see tactics, when players don’t just react but are able to act and think.

I think the tennis is only a game. You can lose. You can win. After that? In life, there are much more important things than tennis.

In Majorca, I can be myself. I go to the supermarket and the cinema, and I am just Rafa. Everyone knows me, and it is no big deal. I can go all day – no photographs.

Girls had never been important. I’d had a girlfriend or two and had liked them a lot but it wasn’t love, because my first love was tennis.

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.

That’s the hard part about sport: as men we haven’t started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.

With Almagro, boy, that’ll be a tough match. He’s playing at a very high level right now and he hits the ball hard.

I’m not the best player in the history of tennis. I think I’m amongst the best. That’s true. That’s enough for me.

Today people hit the ball with much more strength. Almost every player is capable of playing a winning stroke from any position. This means the balls arrive more quickly. If you want to reach them, you have to slow down from a high speed or suddenly change direction. These are moments when you can injure yourself, and that’s what wears us out.

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

I’ll never have a tattoo – I just don’t like them, and when you’re old they can look a disaster. As for piercings, I don’t like them on men.

I just wanted to see how the shorts felt again.