Rafael Nadal

My motivation and aspiration is the same, being number one or being number five. So that’s the truth. And my goal is the same – it’s to always be happy playing, it’s to enjoy the game and improve always.

No one is perfect. Everybody does stupid things.

I am very lucky because when I come back home, I have a completely normal life. I can relax, playing golf, fishing – doing what I want. I know when I finish a tournament, I am going to relax at home.

I’m only superstitious on the tennis court.

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

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.

I don’t have any idols, any heroes, nothing, no.

Don’t think about being the number one in the world, try instead to get through today’s program as well as you can. Then we will see whether one day you’ll end up as number one or number 100.

I have a lot of respect for Liverpool fans and what I did, the sign of silence – ‘shut your mouth’ – was not for them, it was for the English press.

You can swim any way you like in the Dead Sea, actually.

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

The first match is never easy. To play three sets with some important moments, that’s important for the confidence.

My uncle developed the training philosophy. His idea of good tennis training is basically quite simple: you must try to gain time.

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’m ambidextrous when I eat. But playing tennis right-handed – I can’t do it. I’m clueless.

I always had the theory that the most important thing is be happy, enjoy what are you doing, and be fresh mentally.

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.

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.

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 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.

Tennis has to be very careful.Not everyone is a computer, it is very good we have John McEnroe. I hope we have a couple more.