Rafael Nadal

The record of Borg and Vilas? I have thought about it.

I appreciate a lot in this life; the things you cannot buy. Life is only once.

It’s not the time to look for excuses.

It is no longer enough to play very well. You need to be able to give an answer at all times and everywhere. You cannot hide. This has something to do with maturity, and that is something you only acquire over the years.

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.

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.

For sure, I’m going to play less matches because I think it’s very difficult to win the same number of matches as last year. Maybe I’m going to play a little bit less, but I like playing tournaments; so if I feel good, I going to play for sure.

It is the small steps which bring you satisfaction at the end of the day.

Outside the manager, John [Terry] and I have probably the closest relationship with Roman. We speak to him sometimes just minutes after a game to discuss how it went and at other times when he wants to gauge our views on specific subjects … Abramovich is also very like Mourinho in his thirst to discover the reasons behind a certain event or result.

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

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.

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.

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.

I was in the tennis bubble. I wasn’t thinking about the big picture. I didn’t notice what they said on television, I wasn’t reading any papers. I had a coach and a manager, and they kept me in the bubble.

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

It should not be a child’s only goal to become the best player in the world. That would be a bad, a harmful attitude.

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.

I go to my favourite tournament, I talk about my favourite sport and it’s just a great month of parading.

In tennis, because of the way it’s scored, I don’t think that scoring one point out of luck is ever decisive in winning. But, of course, it depends on the moment.

I just try to win the match by fighting for every point, and running down every ball.

I’m always searching for new music, and I change what I listen to on a regular basis.