Rafael Nadal

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 will work day after day like I did my whole life … I’m not going to change anything.

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.

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.

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.

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

Two weeks ago, I was in a fantastic situation, winning at Roland Garros. Now, losing in the first round, it’s tough. The tour continues. Life continues. This is a sport of victories, not a sport of losses. Nobody remembers the losses. I don’t want to remember the loss.

It’s more a tennis problem than a mental problem. The transition is difficult. It depends how much time you have. Playing on grass can sometimes be a bit of a lottery.

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

I am a guy who likes to do what I am doing with passion, whether it’s a soccer match with friends or golf.

It’s already a great feeling to be third on the list. To get past Borg, I will have to reach the final in Barcelona next week. It won?t be easy. I could lose any day. But if I am 100 per cent I know I have a great chance of winning.

Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.

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 just like all the jerks and idiots you know. I am just a guy that watches sports all day.

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.

Our strategy [at Chelsea] is to bring up our own players through the academy, which we have invested a lot in, and hope it gives results.

I’m really, really emotional.

Certainly I would like to have some of the qualities of other players and obviously from Roger Federer. But believe me, there are plenty of other abilities that are important, particularly mindset and strength.

It’s not that difficult to play well and win titles in a team like Barcelona, but it’s in the national side where you see a player’s true class. That was the case with figures like Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. With Spain, Iniesta has shown that he is among the best players of all time and that’s why I rate him higher than Messi or Ronaldo. Even though the latter two have incredible scoring records for their clubs, they still haven’t won anything with Argentina or Portugal respectively.

So this is it. Match point for eternity.