Rafael Nadal

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

I play each point like my life depends on it.

In Majorca, I can be myself. I go to the supermarket and the cinema, and I am just Rafa. Everyone knows me, and it is no big deal. I can go all day – no photographs.

I’ll never have a tattoo – I just don’t like them, and when you’re old they can look a disaster. As for piercings, I don’t like them on men.

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.

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.

The boys are so powerful off of the baseline now that they don’t have to come to the net to finish points. That’s the reason we went to the net. To finish the point. Nowadays, even the big guys can hit winners four feet behind the baseline.

I play because I have fun, if I don’t have fun on the court, there is something wrong. I am just a 19 year old boy that likes to do what he likes, nothing else.

I tried to find a solution to the problem that I had, tried to find a way to start playing better.

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.

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

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

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

I drew my strength from fear. Fear of losing. I don’t remember the games I won, only the games I lost.

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.

If I am not playing at one hundred percent, it is going to be very difficult for me to win.

My tennis is aggressive, though I wouldn’t say that it’s more physical than technical. I rely more on technique than physique, but being physical is always a help to me.

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.

It is the small steps which bring you satisfaction at the end of the day.

I always work with a goal – and the goal is to improve as a player and a person. That, finally, is the most important thing of all.

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.