Rafael Nadal

When one player is better than you, at this moment, the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time. I’m going to wait and I’m going to try a sixth time. And if the sixth doesn’t happen, a seventh. It’s going to be like this. That’s the spirit of sport.

It is unbelievable to me that I can win against the best player in the world, against one of the best in history. It’s very important and very special for me, especially because I was three months off the court.

I normally listen to Spanish music – well, Latin music. I like a lot of singers.

I think when you compete every week, when you play under pressure daily, you find your rituals to be 100 percent focused on what you’re doing.

I just wanted to see how the shorts felt again.

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 have no sense of humor about losing

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.

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

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 will do as I usually do. Tomorrow is going to be a day like any other day.

Every year I go to Broadway to see a musical – I like the music. I saw ‘Mamma Mia;’ I saw ‘Les Miserables;’ I saw ‘Phantom of the Opera’ like six, seven times.

The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There’s no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.

Thats the hard part about sport: as men we havent started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.

I think when you compete every week, when you play under pressure daily, you find your rituals to be 100 percent focused on what you’re doing.

I’ve stayed calm when I’m winning and I’ve stayed calm when I’ve lost. Tennis is a sport where we have a lot of tournaments every week, so you can’t celebrate a lot when you have big victories, and you cannot get too down when you’re losing, as in a few days you’ll be in the next tournament and you’ll have to be ready with that.

I learned during all my career to enjoy suffering.

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

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

I am afraid of a lot of things. A dog. I could be afraid of a dog that’s upset, for example. And on the tennis courts, maybe on the outside I look fearless, but on the inside, I’m scared. There’s not one player in the world who isn’t nervous before matches. Especially important matches.