Rafael Nadal

I was shy when I was a kid, I was very shy, but now I think I’ve improved a lot. I can speak OK with the media and with the people. My English is still bad but I feel a little bit better now than before.

You fight, you try your best, but if you lose, you don’t have to break five racquets and smash up the locker room. You can do those things, but when you’ve finished, nothing’s changed. You’ve still lost. If something positive came from that, I probably would do it. But I see only negativity.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space.

Tennis is a psychological sport, you have to keep a clear head. That is why I stopped playing.

Always I believe that I can play better. But I am happy.

I want to be remembered as a great athlete. As a boxing champion.

I started to travel like this at the age of 15 so for me, it’s normal. Some days you get tired and you feel, ‘I want to stay at home a little bit more,’ but it’s only the moment.

Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions.

I am No. 8 in the world. I am not No. 100.

Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can’t do every dream that I have.

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

For me, it is important to win titles and for that I need to work hard, stay healthy and be able to compete. The rest, I always say, it comes.

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

If the plane moves, some turbulence, I am nervous flyer.

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.