Rafael Nadal

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’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.

It was a very unbelievable day for me. It’s special to begin the clay season like this. Beating Roger in the final is even more special, it’s great.

I am going to fight for important things.

It’s important to have people around you with enough confidence to say if you are not acting in a good way. Normally, when you are at the top, people say everything is fantastic. Probably in that moment it is what you want to hear, but it’s best to be reminded how to act properly.

We should try to teach the young people values that are useful to them whether they become professional athletes or not.

My feeling would be that you lose something of the beauty of the Premiership by joining something not defined at the moment.

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.

Today people hit the ball with much more strength. Almost every player is capable of playing a winning stroke from any position. This means the balls arrive more quickly. If you want to reach them, you have to slow down from a high speed or suddenly change direction. These are moments when you can injure yourself, and that’s what wears us out.

I live where I would like to live. I live in Majorca, Spain, and I am not sure there are better places.

I am going to fight for important things.

I just wanted to see how the shorts felt again.

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

I am happy with being a tennis player and the choice I took when I was 12. But clearly, if I wouldnt have been a tennis player, I would have loved to be a soccer player. But again, I am happy with the choice I made.

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

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

We’ll try and be very aggressive, we’ll try and speed up and change gears, and we’ll see who’s going to win.

With Almagro, boy, that’ll be a tough match. He’s playing at a very high level right now and he hits the ball hard.

Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game – and do it by watching some high school or small-town teams.

I love basketball.

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