Rafael Nadal

It is important to recognize the small successes.

The thing, when you’re down two sets to love, is to stay calm, even though it’s hard, because people are freaking out, people are worried for you.

I have the same bedroom I’ve always had. It’s clean and tidy when I get home, and after two or three days it gets messy and my mother nags me.

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 am happy with being a tennis player and the choice I took when I was 12. But clearly, if I wouldnt have been a tennis player, I would have loved to be a soccer player. But again, I am happy with the choice I made.

I think I am a complete player. I can play well on all the surfaces. For me, the clay might be easiest, but I am not a specialist on clay.

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

Gaudio is playing very well. Today he played at an incredible level, especially on his backhand. But I am only thinking of my own game, and of playing well.

Playing well or playing bad, I have to play aggressive. I must play aggressive.

I only ever run when there’s some point to it – say, if it’s in a game of tennis.

The only way of finding a solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure.

When one gets beaten by somebody better, one has to know how to lose with humility. Sure, I could have served better. Sure, I could have hit my forehand harder. But the truth was this was like an avalanche, and there was no way to stop it.

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.

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

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

I had the pleasure of competing at the Olympic Games and at Wimbledon and was fortunate enough to win the gold medal in both events,

The glory is being happy. The glory is not winning here or winning there. The glory is enjoying practicing, enjoy every day, enjoying to work hard, trying to be a better player than before.

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.

Every time you are not practicing someone else is.

I don’t really care what the man on the street thinks. I never did anything to please him in the first place, and I’m not going to start now.

Hard courts are very negative for the body. I know the sport is a business and creating these courts is easier than clay or grass, but I am 100 per cent sure it is wrong.