Rafael Nadal

It’s not the time to look for excuses.

I appreciate a lot in this life; the things you cannot buy. Life is only once. I am happy being here and all the things that are a risk I normally avoid.

Every girl has her own character, every boy his own mind.

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.

It’s more a tennis problem than a mental problem. The transition is difficult. It depends how much time you have. Playing on grass can sometimes be a bit of a lottery.

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.

When you are thrown onto the stage at 17 in such an enormous way, it becomes living on the edge because every step you take, every word you speak, every action you do becomes headline news. And it became, for me, life or death.

The favorite is always the No. 1. I can win. Blake can win. But the favorite is the No. 1.

I am thrilled to be the new team captain. I am sure that the pressures I’ve faced on centre court will stand me in good stead to battle it out against Ian and his team.

Even if I have already peaked, I have to believe I can improve. I wake up every morning, and go to practice, with the illusion that I’m going to get better that day.

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 am decidedly unfriendly during a golf game, from the first hole to the last.

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.

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.

I am not the most courageous guy in the world outside of the court. Being alone in the dark is something I don’t like.

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.

What distinguishes tennis is respect for one’s opponent, one’s conduct on the court.

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

Since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to do sports for a living. In the beginning, I played a lot of soccer, but in the end I chose tennis. I love sports in general … But tennis is my passion.

I don’t think we are so ugly that we should be seen as the devil and I don’t think Arsene Wenger and David Dein are so beautiful that they should be viewed as angels.

Its silly to say it about a tennis player, but Im an unbelievable hero in Germany. And Germany needs heroes more than any place.