Rafael Nadal is sitting in a room at the Standard High Line in NYC. The tennis star is here to talk about the new NikeCourt collection, which debuts this week. To celebrate the line, Nike will stage a re-imagining of its iconic Spike Jonze-directed "Guerrilla Tennis" commercial, in which the classic rivalry between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras was famously played out on a busy Manhattan street.

The need for a narrative has conferred on Nadal and Roger Federer the 21st-century version of that Agassi-Sampras rivalry. At the Standard, I show up with Polaroid camera and ask him what he thinks of the comparisons: "Oh, yeah, no, I think different eras, different stories. Both, I think, are interesting," he says simply.

With the U.S. Open starting this week, and without a major title win this season (his first time in six years), there's been talk of replacing his coaching team after a spate of unexpected losses. Today though, Nadal's mind is very much in the room as we move from his legacy to his morning routine: "I have a shower, some breakfast, and normally I go to the court to practice," he tells me.

Nadal isn't unaware of his status as an icon. The brash style he showcases on the court—his capri-length shorts and sleeveless tops, with long hair held back by his signature Nike headband—has inspired almost as much talk as his swing. Reflecting on his decision to ditch the capris, Nadal says, "I had been using those long shorts from 2005 until 2008. It was, you know, something different and I enjoyed it, but at that point I felt like it was the moment for a change. I felt that I was not a kid anymore."

At 29, the decision to adjust the length of your shorts might look like growing up. Or maybe it's the need to prove you've still got it, that your talent is still the talent you became known for. Either way, next week we'll be watching to see how Nadal performs. Win or lose, he'll walk off that court in Queens and, if we're lucky, deliver that smile.

Source

The four step return of Rafael Nadal

Accept defeat, congratulate the opponent, analyze what happened and prepare the next challenges. These four steps are the manual for Rafael Nadal upon his return to Mallorca from Paris. The Spaniard has already taken the first two and prepares to rest a few days before taking the next two. Nadal accepts his defeat at Roland Garros highlighting the current superiority of Djokovic and confesses he is "happy" with the assurance that things "are going to get better."

The winner of nine Coupe des Mousquetaires is clear that he has accumulated more success in Paris than he could ever have imagined when he started building his career ten years ago. The situation of a farewell in the quarterfinals allows you to regroup.

 "I said it before, during and after the tournament: Roland Garros is neither my career nor are my options running out. There is a drastic change of gaining or losing" he says. "The life and career continue," he concludes.
"My worst moment was losing the final in Australia without being competitive last year. Now I've lost a quarter-final, he was better and we must accept his superiority yesterday -for the Wednesday- and in recent times, so I have to work to continue to improve,"  he says.
"I must follow the line of the last month and a half. I started the year with three months at a rather disastrous level on the tennis court, but I worked quietly and things are better and will get better," he says. "Among all the negative I have been feeling better, it was not a bad tournament in terms of level of play," he adds.

(translated by Chris Boardman)

Rafael Nadal: addicted to competition

Buenos Aires, February 11, 2015.- 

"The worst is not able to compete. No matter if it's the back, the appendix or whatever. The worst thing is not being able to get out onto the court to face a rival", says Rafael Nadal toargentinaopenatp.com, describing what he suffered most last season. In his statement Nadal makes it clear that he has an addiction. Something you suffer from if you can't do it. Also something you fight against whenever you can not do it. His need to compete is what really motivates the current number three in the world. After 2014, a year marked by injuries, the Spaniard is back and the Argentina Open, which takes place from February 21 to March 1 at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, is one of his stops. One of the places where he can do what he likes, being able to fight on a tennis court.

The ordeal with injuries began in the final of the 2014 Australian Open, in which he ended up falling to Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka, after suffering a "blockage" in the lumbar area during warm up. Later that year it would be an injury to the right wrist that made it impossible for him to participate in the two North American Masters 1,000 Tournaments during the summer [Toronto and Cincinnati] and the US Open, where he would have been defending the title. But it did not end there, appendicitis forced him to undergo surgery and withdraw from the Masters Cup. Injury, a fate in the successful career of Nadal.

However, it appears that pain makes him hungry. Suffering could be considered a food for the 14-time Grand Slam champion. In 2013, after being absent from the circuit for more than seven months (for a partial rupture of the patella tendon and fat pad impingement of left knee), he returned and won 10 titles, including Roland Garros and the US Open. The motivation is his addiction. A dependency to be on the court and enjoying it. "Food is a pasta dish, a salad, and above all a good fish. The pain is something with which almost all players play. The motivation is the competition itself, trying to win, savoring the moment of victory and in the end even more. I think that while I know that I can win, that I am able to do so, I will continue having that motivation,"says the 28-year-Nadal who finds his stimulus in the search for the triumph.

"Sometimes he gives the impression that he is not aware of all the history that's behind him," commented David Vega, a young Spanish tennis player with whom Rafa trained a few months ago. The incredulity of the European boy lies in humility and simplicity just like his idol, Nadal. The man from Mallorca is clear about his achievements, but his concern is improving the factors that can help prolong his successes. "I am aware of what I have earned because never had I been able to imagine or even dream that I would win so many titles, but it's true that I do not dwell on them or recount what I did or think about what I will do before the end of my career. Now my only concern is prepare myself as I have always done to be in the best conditions to compete," says the nine-time Roland Garros champion.

Luck often plays a role in the relentless pursuit. For Nadal, luck is something that exists but which, as with everything in life, must also be fought for. "Luck plays a role without a doubt but it's not just a given, it must be sought," says the former number one in the world with clarity and simplicity.

In each of the answers provided by Nadal, the will to compete emerges. According to the Spanish daily "As", the Mallorcan will travel about 115,000 kilometers this season in order to participate in the tournaments that make up his loaded calendar. The adrenaline and excitement that comes with competition is bigger than any flight to a remote event. That enthusiasm with which Nadal lives is his best medicine, it allows him to overcome the recurrent headaches facing his punished body. "Traveling is part of our work, what we do for the competition. For so many years. That is perhaps what you have to weigh up, what you have done and continue to do for so many years. For now I deal with it well, especially taking into account that last year I couldn't do all those kilometers that I would have liked because I was injured at the end of the season".

His last and only ATP Buenos Aires participation took place in 2005. Nadal was very different then. He was 18 years old, wore pantaloons and sported large muscles. Nor had any of his nine Roland Garros titles or the 14 Grand Slams figured in. Ten years later things have changed. A decade has gone by since that strange quarter-final against Gastón Gaudio - by then 8th in the rankings - when El Gato beat Nadal 0-6/6-0/6-1. Nadal puts things in perspective when he recalls that match. "It was a long time ago and I remember the match against Gaudio perfectly. It was one of those strange results and in the end he won. Of course I have changed a lot because it is how life works, one grows, becomes more mature, changes physically and mentally... ", says Rafa who will soon return to slide over the Buenos Aires clay.

HOME OF HIS PARENTS
At 28 years old and a bank account that would allow him to buy house wherever he wanted, Rafael Nadal decided to continue living at home with his parents. In Manacor the Spaniard enjoys his short breaks from the intense ATP circuit with his family. "It gives me peace. I am not too at home here because of my travels, so it is not the same as it is for someone who spends all of their time there. I am fine for now."

Translations by Chris Boardman for Rafaholics.com
Source:

Recommended Reading..


Despite Djokovic’s Wimbledon Win, Nadal Is Still King Of Tennis -ForbesBlog

There have been some players like Bjorn Borg who retired at 25 because they lost their competitive fires. But don’t expect that from Nadal, who begrudgingly acknowledged Djokovic’s victory and status Sunday, but also was self-critical and said he’ll be back. He did not sound like a player ready to hand the baton to the 24-year-old Serb. If anything, Nadal will be more determined than ever to return to the top.

How Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal and got into his head -By Patrick Mouratoglou

In the manner of a true champion, Nadal was able to seize all his opportunities in order to try to turn the match around, despite this third set and the break lost at the start of the fourth one. But now it's obvious that Nadal can't sit around waiting for Djokovic to fall. It's his game now and Nadal needs to catch up. No more waiting around for Nole to lose focus and start missing. Rafael Nadal needs tactical answers and had to make tough decision, especially with the American hard court season certain to suit Djokovic's game in the coming months.

A Loser's Winning Moment 
Rafael Nadal's Grace Helps Him Shine in the Shadow of Wimbledon Champ Novak Djokovic

Nadal did it perfectly. He made it about Djokovic and not himself. He didn't sulk or remind everyone that the next morning they would wake up with the same lives and same problems. It was the type of postgame interview that made you want to turn to an impressionable young athlete and say, "See that? Hear that? That is how it is done."

The unprecedented challenge of Nadal  [google trans]

 [article before the final]

From the Sunday Times via Barry Flatman

Nadal shuts out the past
The defending champion will ignore recent losses to Djokovic as he bids for a third Wimbledon title this afternoon

As an evening chill settled on Wimbledon, the indecision of Toni Nadal became almost comical. Three times he took off his sweatshirt and then decided things were a little too cool and pulled it on again. Yet if the coach, mentor and controller of the defending champion couldn’t make up his mind with his own attire, he was insistent on his nephew’s impending task.

Ever since Rafael Nadal left Centre Court on Friday after again emphasising his big-match dominance over Andy Murray, the focus has been switched to addressing the task of putting Novak Djokovic’s four final victories against the Spaniard into context before another confrontation today with the prize far more prestigious.

One thing Uncle Toni cannot control is how his nephew answers questions, but undeniably there was a hint of derision as he heard what has been said about the 28th encounter between the new world No 1 and the player he will officially dethrone after a 57-week tenure of top spot on the ATP World Tour rankings. “Nole’s [Djokovic] mental position over me is probably a little bit better because he won the last four finals against me,” said the top seed, who has suffered seven defeats so far this year compared to Djokovic’s one, but is unbeaten in his last 20 matches at Wimbledon. “All I can say is I will try my best. I have to play aggressive. I have to play with intensity, with rhythm.”

There was no denying that the expression on Nadal’s face had grown ever more frustrated and concerned with each Masters 1000 series trophy Djokovic lifted in his triumphant march through the early months of 2011. First there was Indian Wells and then Miami on American cement, which went some way to redressing the balance of last year’s US Open triumph for the Spaniard. But Madrid and Rome on Nadal’s banker surface of clay, now that was altogether a different matter.

More so than ever before, Nadal's game throughout the fortnight has appeared in perfect harmony with the demands of grass “What I will tell Rafael over and over again before he walks out on Sunday is that those matches are in the past and gone,” said Toni. “There is nothing he can do to change anything and so there is no point in concerning himself by concentrating on them. Since then we have again experienced the joy of winning Roland Garros and now we are here at Wimbledon with 20 wins in a row. They are things that Rafael must have in his illusion, not losing the four finals, which are finished.”

The Nadals are tight-knit. Regularly turning away to take counsel in the Mallorquin dialect of Spanish from his brother and Rafa’s father, Sebastian, Toni continued: “I will talk to you about the four finals but I do not intend to speak of them with Rafael. What is the benefit? He knew what he did wrong at the time and we don’t need to return to those days.

“At Indian Wells Rafael was better in the first set but did not have too good a mentality as the match got older, but it was understandable as that tournament was his first after getting injured with his leg at the Australian Open. After that Miami was very close and was just a matter of one or two points. Madrid and then Rome were different: Nole’s mentality from the unbeaten run he was enjoying was a great boost and he showed us what he could do on clay.”

By common consent, Djokovic’s form throughout Wimbledon has been less dominant, but not a word of criticism is forthcoming from Team Nadal. By the same token, nobody other than Rafael himself is voicing any praise for what the Serb has achieved to reach his first final at the All England Club after twice falling at the semi-final stage.

When it comes to experience at this advanced stage on the grass of London SW19, Nadal has a massive advantage. This will be his fifth final in six years and he was forced to miss the 2009 event because of injury, so denying him the only previous opportunity to defend this title. More so than ever before, his game throughout the past fortnight has appeared in perfect harmony with the demands of grass.

Whether he would have been so dominant a couple of decades ago, when serve was far more dominant, the bounce was lower and pace rather than weight of shot was paramount, is another argument that has no validity in a Nadal mind.

What is certain is that while the hallmarks of the Nadal game are power and almost superhuman physicality, there is also wondrous touch and an increasing ability to apply that bygone art of playing serve and volley tennis when the opportunity presents itself. The Spaniard happily goes through the gears imparting spin and slice before delivering the killer blow with sheer strength.

Against Murray in the semi-final, Nadal’s scarcity in terms of unforced errors committed in the final three sets could only be described as mean-spirited. He gave almost nothing to the Scot, with not a solitary unforced error in the second set, just two in the third and one in the concluding fourth.

“We have to have a look about the statistics, but not everything is statistics, no?” Nadal asked in his characteristic questioning manner. “The important thing for me is that I am again playing the Wimbledon final for the fifth time. I never thought this was going to happen for me on the grass. I think is a great effort because for years there was no Spaniard playing the later stages here and many of the players from my country didn’t even come to play the tournament.”

In the same resigned way that Nadal’s Spanish predecessors such as Sergi Bruguera, Alex Corretja, Albert Costa, Alberto Berasategui and even fellow Majorcan Carlos Moya would habitually book their summer vacation during the final week of June and first of July, common consensus decreed that the feats of Bjorn Borg in winning back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles would never again be repeated.

If Nadal today claims his 11th Grand Slam title, he will be only 29 days older than Borg when the Swede became the youngest player to amass such numbers. Fittingly the one-time Ice Man will be in the Royal Box today.

“To do what Rafa does, winning on grass, you need to play on clay and do well, physically and mentally,” insisted a magnanimous Borg. “You need to play a lot of tournaments and be so physically and mentally tough. My message to Rafa at this stage would be ‘Don’t change anything; why should you?’.

“All you need to do is go out and hit the ball the same way you did on clay. You have played the tough matches, you are mentally and physically ready. Admittedly the grass is slower today than when I played but that plays into Rafa’s hands.

“I think Rafa is the same as me, which is refreshing in a way. He is hardened on the Roland Garros clay, so when he moves to grass, he takes that match toughness with him.”

Uncle Toni would certainly subscribe to such a point of view, seeing it as far more pertinent than the small matter of those four final victories for Novak Djokovic.

[:

• Nadal: "Tomorrow I will play"
• Nadal and Del Potro get the benefit of the doubt...from me
• Tennis: Welsh teen Evan Hoyt helps Rafael Nadal get fit
• What Fish Needs to Do Against Nadal
• Surface Tension
• Nadal ready to rest at the expense of US Davis Cup tie
• ELPAIS [saying Rafa has a pinched tendon]

Nadal up for ‘tough’ match vs Muller at Wimbledon

“Was a long time (ago), but he beat me,” said Nadal, the Wimbledon champion in 2008 and ’10. “Gilles is a very dangerous player. He has a very good serve, good volley. He’s especially very dangerous player in this kind of surface. So will be tough match for me.”

“Will be a big, big test for me,” said Nadal, who missed the 2009 tournament with injury but is 16-0 at Wimbledon since losing to Federer in the 2007 final. “I have to be very focused all the time with my serve and try to convert the small chances that I can have on the return.”

“The Wimbledon Centre Court with the roof or without the roof is probably the best court of the world,” Nadal said. “Always a pleasure playing in this court.”

“I don’t know if (it was) because the atmosphere inside the court with the roof is more humid or because (it) was raining before the match or something,” Nadal said. “But seems like the court is a little more slippery than usual.”

“I was playing well the first two sets, and especially the beginning of the third,” Nadal said. “But 2-1, 40-Love, I had a few mistakes. And, yeah, he break me back.”

“Today my rival is every day my opponent and myself, too,” Nadal said, “because I have to do well in every tournament in every match.”

Wimbledon 2011: Rafael Nadal on course for Andy Murray semi 

“I had some good feelings out there and in general thought I did well,” Nadal said.
The world No 1 seed was also asked if he felt he might be in decline, with Novak Djokovic competing for top billing.
“Me? In decline? I won Roland Garros two weeks ago, so I don’t forget that. It’s a bit fast, a bit dangerous to be saying that, eh? It’s my seventh year without being outside the top two. That is a lot of years.”

Wimbledon 2011: Rafael Nadal beats Ryan Sweeting
Nadal notches up Sweeting victory
Nadal surprised by 'in decline' query
Nadal Tops Sweeting; Berdych Cruises
Rafael Nadal v Ryan Sweeting - as it happened
Brilliant Nadal too hot for Sweeting

It is nine o'clock at night and Ana Maria is walking quickly along a wet and deserted Church Road. Dressed casually, moving with respect for the imposing silence that surrounds her, she looks in a hurry to reach her son's house, where once again he is cooking for the whole family. Fish and pasta are Rafael's two specialities and until now nobody has complained about his qualities as a 'chef'. After returning from his daily work, whenever he is not in the kitchen, the 25-year-old is to be found slumped on the sofa of the four bedroomed house watching the US Open golf on television.

The normal life of a well-to-do family in the suburbs of any great city, but a real exception in the life of world number one tennis player Rafael Nadal who usually lives from hotel to hotel and from restaurant to restaurant. "This is very different from what is usual. Here I manage to live a different life," explained the Spaniard, who tomorrow begins the defence of his Wimbledon title. "Something just as simple as stretching out on the sofa at night and being able to chat with your own folk. Eating out is very nice, but let's not delude ourselves, it's tiring always going to restaurants."

Used to luxury hotels appropriate to his megastar status in the sport, every year when he comes to Wimbledon Nadal enjoys that vibrant anachronism in which tennis meets its longest established traditions. During these days "Going to work" is simpler than ever. "I'm just 15 metres from the club!", he says with delight. His uncle and coach, Toni, who along with his physiotherapist, Rafael Maymo, is also staying at the house, puts the distance at 50 metres.

Whether it is 15 or 50, what is certain is that many players envy the Nadals. They go out of gate 16 at the All England Club, cross Somerset Road, and in less than a minute they have covered the distance from the players lounge at the tournament to their London home. "The house has a very important strategical advantage. As the hotels are far from here, when it rains, and that happens a lot, you have to spend all day at the club waiting to practise. With the house you don't, you can go to it and wait peacefully there," explained the player.

His uncle certifies that Rafa "knows how to cook", though he thinks it will be his mother, Ana Maria, who will be taking charge of that for a couple of days. Invited along with her husband, Sebastián, side by side with whom she watched their son's practise with Feliciano Lopez, the world number one's mother smiled as she commented on the "disordered" confusion of people that come and go at her son's house.

In any case, disorder means that it is the authentic Nadal here. Famous for the chaos in his hotel rooms, which more than once has meant he only just arrived in time for his flight because he could not find his passport, Nadal has arrived at Wimbledon in top form and with the self-confidence that comes from having won Roland Garros two weeks ago. "Last weekend I played the best two rounds of golf in my life," he said with a smile from ear to ear, revitalized by two days in Mallorca after losing in the Queen's quarter finals.

And, after at last publically confessing that he feels he is among the best players in history, the ambitions of Nadal, who makes his debut early tomorrow afternoon against the USA's Michael Russell, are logically high.

"Rafa has come here to try to win the tournament. I won't sign for just (reaching) the final. No, I won't sign for that," confessed Toni.

If he wins his third Wimbledon, Nadal will be on his way to repeating his 2010 season feat of winning three of the four Grand Slams.

"That would be a dream for me, but it's really impossible," said the player, 

getting back to his usual discourse: humility even over and above the facts. But his uncle has reasons to think that during the next two weeks he will be knocking on gate 16 over and over again.

"I think he's playing well, though in Paris he also practised well and then he played badly. (We'll find out) the truth, on Centre Court from Monday on."

SOURCE: Elmundo

Rafael Nadal - time for a break.

Rafael Nadal was on Friday night preparing to fly home for a hard-earned holiday before returning to London to launch his Wimbledon title defence.

The Spaniard's defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals of the AEGON Championships at Queen's Club afforded him the chance to take a brief sun break.

He will head back to Majorca, looking to energise himself for two more weeks on grass, while spending time with friends and family.

"It's important for me, to always be there with family around, friends and everything, having people close to me," world number one Nadal said.

"So I need a few days to be with them and hopefully come back to Wimbledon probably next Wednesday or Thursday; Wednesday, I think.

"The negative thing is I lost; the positive thing is I have a few days off and can stop a little bit mentally.

"I can be a little bit more relaxed, because I play every day with pressure. To wake up every day with that pressure that you have to play is not easy, and that's what happened for me the last four months every day."

The 25-year-old came to London at the start of the week on the back of winning the French Open.

The Roland Garros title match against Roger Federer was Nadal's seventh consecutive final, and the schedule has left him exhausted.

He intends to perhaps sharpen up his serve but do little other tennis work and instead "be with the family, play some golf, relax, go fishing maybe".

He expects to be fully prepared for his Wimbledon bid though, as he targets a third title at the All England Club.

Nadal said: "I don't know if I will play well, but I'm going to be there with high motivation and hopefully in perfect performance physically."

Source

by Lynn Barber

Possibly the worst interviewer ever.. this Lynn Barber really needs to learn how to keep her legs closed & her ugly trap shut. click the link for more on this horrid piece of journalism if that is what you call this..


If anyone else tells me what a lovely lad Rafael Nadal is, I shall scream. He is not a lad, he has just turned 25, which is admittedly young, but he is in his ninth year on the professional tennis circuit, has won nine Grand Slam titles and is worth at least £68m. And I didn’t find him lovely at all. When I finally met him in his hotel suite in Rome (he was playing the Rome Masters), he was lying on a massage table with his flies undone affording me a good view of his Armani underpants — Armani being one of his many sponsors, natch.

No doubt at this point all his millions of fans will start screaming with jealousy and resolving to kill me, but honestly, kiddos, it was a bit rude. He just lay there glowering at me while I perched awkwardly on a nearby table until eventually his PR, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, fetched me a chair. Benito remained in the background and whenever Nadal didn’t like a question (which was pretty much every time I asked one) he asked Benito to “translate”, which meant they conferred in Spanish till the PR delivered some smooth PR-y answer. Nadal’s command of English seemed highly variable but never great.

Everyone kept telling me that Rafa was so tired and had had a bad day. But then I was so tired and had had a bad day too, traipsing round the boiling Foro Italico stadium, surviving on bottled water, watching his boring match, waiting for his press conference, then hanging about with mobs of screaming fans waiting for him to emerge from the players’ entrance.

The day of Seve Ballesteros’s funeral, Rafa signed Seve instead of Rafa on the TV lens
He eventually came out with a posse of security men, signed a few autographs, and was whisked off in his car. I was told to follow and meet him at his hotel, which turned out to be some characterless sports/conference complex miles outside Rome — it could have been in Croydon. His bad day only consisted of playing one short tennis match and signing a few autographs, which I thought was what tennis players were paid to do.

He admitted at the press conference that he had played badly, dropping a set to a completely unknown Italian, but he offered no excuses. However, other people were quick to offer them for him: it was the day of Seve Ballesteros’s funeral and Rafa adored Ballesteros.

When he went to sign his name on the TV lens (apparently one of those rituals they do at tennis tournaments), he signed Seve instead of Rafa. And, according to David Law, media director for the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club, who very kindly served as my guide to the tennis world, Rafa was definitely below par the day we met, and two days later was diagnosed with a virus. He then went on to lose the Rome finals to Novak Djokovic, having lost the Madrid Masters to him the Sunday before, so his position as world No 1 was looking shaky.

What do we know about Rafa Nadal? Only what his minders want you to. He was born in 1986 in Manacor, Majorca. His father is a businessman but the whole family is sporty — one uncle was a professional footballer known as the Beast of Barcelona. Another uncle, Toni, a former tennis semi-pro, taught Rafa to play tennis from the age of three, and encouraged him to hold the racket in his left hand, even though he is naturally right-handed. Rafa played in the Spanish juniors and was urged to go to tennis school in Barcelona, but he chose to stay in Majorca with his family; Uncle Toni has been his only coach throughout his career.

He started playing professionally when he was just 15 and won his first Grand Slam at 19. He lost his first two Wimbledons, but finally won against Roger Federer in 2008. For a while he seemed unstoppable, but then a string of knee injuries (tendinitis) meant he didn’t win a title for almost a year, and commentators started saying he might have to retire. He missed Wimbledon in 2009, partly because of injury but also because his parents split up and he was very upset — “For one month I was outside the world.” But he bounced back in 2010 and there has been no talk of tendinitis recently. However, he is now under threat from Djokovic.

Despite his vast wealth — £24m in winnings, probably twice that in sponsorship — everyone agrees that he is unspoilt, unchanged. His best friends are still the friends he made at school; his hobbies are football, golf and fishing. He goes back to his home town, Manacor, whenever he has time, and shares a big apartment block with his mother, sister, grandparents and Uncle Toni’s family. He also has a beach house at Porto Cristo, Majorca (not Ibiza, as the press sometimes says), where he likes to go fishing. Two years ago he bought a £2m beachfront house with its own golf course in the Dominican Republic, but has never stayed there. I asked if there was some tax reason for choosing the Dominican Republic, but he said no, he pays all his taxes in Spain, but he has some property investments in Mexico and thought it would be good to have a base near there for when he retires. He also has a charity foundation, run by his mother, which collaborated in opening a school with three tennis courts in India.

Anyway, back to the interview. Since I had such an unfettered view of his underpants, I decided to ask about them. Frankly, I’m amazed any underwear company should want to sponsor Nadal, given that his on-court behaviour always screams “My pants are killing me!” He can’t go five minutes without fiddling with them; they seem to get sucked into his buttocks and then he has to pull them out. I remember the first time I saw him at Wimbledon thinking: “Gosh, he’s supposed to earn millions… you’d think he could afford some decent underwear by now.”

Why is he always fiddling with his underwear? 'That is something I am doing all my career, something that I cannot control'
I asked whether his contract stipulated that he should wear Armani underwear on court and he said: “I don’t have to but I am very happy to wear Armani because their underwear is fantastic.”

Then why is he always fiddling with it? “That is something I am doing all my career, something that I cannot control.” Has he ever tried to stop? “It is difficult for me because it bothers me all the time, and I play with different underwears — long, short — but it is impossible to stop.”

Perhaps it’s just another of those Rafa rituals that all his fans adore. Every time he comes on court, he waves at the crowd, sits down, gets his water bottles out of his bag, takes a sip from each, then carefully lines them up so that their labels all face precisely the same way.

It takes a long time and his opponent is meanwhile standing by the net, waiting for the coin toss, getting quite irritated, I imagine. Eventually, when Rafa has faffed and fiddled enough, he leaps to his feet and does a sort of Superman swoop across the court and starts jumping up and down in his opponent’s face while the umpire tosses his coin. Then he races to the baseline as if he’s dying to start the match and his opponent has been unfairly delaying things. The fans love it. What can I say?

I asked if he suffered from OCD, but of course this required translation and much conferring with his PR and produced the eventual answer: “It is something you start to do that is like a routine. When I do these things it means I am focused, I am competing — it’s something I don’t need to do but when I do it, it means I’m focused.” Does he have other rituals, perhaps in the locker room, before the match? “I always have a cold shower.” Any particular rituals before he goes to sleep? “No. I have to have the TV or computer on, but I turn it off if I wake up. What I normally do is have dinner, do some work with Rafael, my physio, then sleep.” Gripping stuff.

As far as I can see, Nadal has made only one (mildly) controversial remark in his life, and that was in 2009, when he criticised Andre Agassi for saying in his autobiography, Open, that he had taken crystal meth while he was still on the tour. Nadal said that tennis was a clean sport, and it was very bad of Agassi to suggest otherwise.

Was it really news to him that anyone in tennis took drugs? This required heavy conferring with his PR, but he eventually came back with: “Well, that’s something that’s all in the past. But I was shocked. I know Agassi did a lot of good things for tennis but that book wasn’t one of those things. You [Agassi] didn’t feel bad when you were playing and then you feel bad five years after you retire — it’s not a moral thing. Anyway, that is something that is impossible today. We have 25 drugs tests a year.”

Agassi also said in his book that he grew to hate tennis, having played it so relentlessly for so long. Nadal says that could never happen to him — he loves tennis — but he wishes the tour could be shorter. All the ATP players have to commit to playing 16 obligatory tournaments, but Nadal in addition always plays Barcelona, for the sake of his family and Majorcan friends; he also plays Qatar as preparation for the Australian Open, and Queen’s as preparation for Wimbledon, which means he plays 11 months a year. And of course, because he is rarely knocked out in the early rounds, he never gets time off.

“For sure,” he sighs, “the tour is not perfect. In my opinion, three months is the minimum time you should be off. If not, we have a shorter career. Everyone has a shorter career and it’s not good for the sport, not good for the players, not good for the fans.”

One journalist found it incredible that Rafa still had the same mobile a year after winning Wimbledon. Rafa said it worked, why change it?
I asked if his history of knee injuries meant he would be more crippled when he is 50 than someone who had never played tennis. He said: “For sure. When you play 11 months of the year, mostly on hard courts, that’s what happens, yes.” So, it’s a hard life, and a very, very unnatural one. The players live inside a bubble surrounded by these great phalanxes of middle-aged minders, big-bellied habitués of the hospitality tent who don’t seem to have anything much to do except talk on their mobiles. If required to do so by a journalist like me, they will effuse about their “boy” and what a lovely lad he is, and how he loves his football and his fishing and is so close to his family, etc, etc, wheeling out their tired old stereotype of what a lovely lad consists of, and you think, hang on, your “boy” could eat 10 of you for breakfast — why do you talk so patronisingly about him?

And why do you find it so remarkable that he is still close to his family and still sees his old friends? Presumably because you’re the sort of sleazeball who dropped your old friends and family the minute you moved up in the world.

One journalist found it incredible that Rafa still had the same mobile phone a year after winning Wimbledon that he had the year before. Rafa (good man) said it was a perfectly good phone, it worked, why change it? But the journalist seemed to take this as evidence of an almost saintly degree of unworldliness, right up there with the Dalai Lama.

The degree of publicity control in sport is comparable to the heyday of Hollywood, when they had these great studio PR machines that took young actors as soon as they were signed and proceeded to invent their life stories for them. Merle Oberon was told she grew up in Tasmania, when she actually grew up in Bombay, which made life difficult when she had to give interviews in Australia. The game was exposed in Oscar Levant’s remark, “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin,” ie, before the studio got their mitts on her. And poor old Rock Hudson had to die of Aids before anyone could admit he was gay.

Anyway, it means that sports stars, like Hollywood stars of old, are forced to live within the boring and meagre straitjackets their publicity machines have crafted for them. But once in a while the machine breaks down, most memorably in the case of Tiger Woods. Here was a brilliant golfer whose minders and sponsors dictated that he was also Mr Wholesome, a clean-living family man and role model for “lads” around the world. And lo! He turns out to have a long, sleazy history with hookers. And the world — or at any rate his sponsors — throw up their hands and shout This is appalling! We are amazed, we are shocked to the core, we wash our hands of him. Whereas, in fact, if they were doing their jobs and knew anything at all about him, they would have known it was all a charade.

I wanted to ask Rafa about Tiger Woods and spent a long time before the interview plotting how I could best raise his name without looking too obvious, but then Rafa saved me the trouble by raising it himself. Almost out of the blue, having talked about Seve Ballesteros (usual paeans), he said: “But if I have an idol, I love Tiger Woods.”

Crikey. I almost fainted with excitement. Er, and did his opinion of him change when he found out? “No, it didn’t change my opinion of him because I don’t care about his personal life. Nobody must care about his personal life — Tiger Woods is a very important person in the world because he plays golf.” But when he’s been marketed as this great clean-living role model for the young and then it turns out…?

She is perfect for me, because she is very relaxed and easy-going and I’ve known her for a long time
“Well, I don’t want to discuss about these things, but in my opinion” — which unfortunately required a great deal of translation and discussion with his PR, who eventually came back with: “He says Tiger never hurt anybody in the outside world, he only hurt himself. He is a role model for him on the golf course and also in public because he always behaved properly. But what he does in private is his personal life, nobody else’s, and Rafa says his problems with his wife are his problems with his wife, not anybody else’s.” Yes, but there’s a certain hypocrisy in allowing himself to be marketed as Mr Clean. This remark doesn’t seem to need translation because Rafa responds sharply: “Well. Anyway. Next question.”

Right. Which brings me to the subject of The Girlfriend. Her existence was unveiled to the world by Uncle Toni in 2008 (though unveiled is perhaps not the word) when he said Rafa had a childhood sweetheart back home in Majorca called Maria Francisca Perello, or Xisca for short. Nadal was quoted as saying: “She is perfect for me, because she is very relaxed and easy-going and I’ve known her for a long, long time. Our families have been friends for many years.”

Hardly the language of passion, you’ll agree, but at least from then on he had an official girlfriend, which made up for the fact that his sleeveless tops and bulging biceps reminded one inexorably of Freddie Mercury. But The Girlfriend remains a distant presence, never actually around.

She sometimes makes an appearance at his finals, among his family, but even long-time tennis insiders have never met her. Nadal says he sees her whenever he goes back to Majorca, but for a young man in peak physical condition, it doesn’t suggest the height of sexual fulfilment.

Anyway, I asked if he was going to marry The Girlfriend and he said flatly, No.

Me: “No??!!??!!”

Rafa: “Not now, no. I don’t have any plans in that way.”

Me: “Do you mean you’ve split up?”

Rafa: “No. I don’t talk about the girlfriend in public, but I have the same girlfriend since many years.”

Me: “When do you meet?” 

Rafa: “Her house is very close to my house, so when I am in Majorca I see her, and when she has holidays sometimes she comes to the tournaments, but she cannot follow the tour around because she has to do her work. [She works for a big insurance company.] She has her life and I have my life.”

Me: “Do you think she’ll wait for you? To get married when you finish tennis?”

Rafa: “I didn’t ask her to.”

Me: “But if you only see her — what? — 30 days a year, it can’t be a very fulfilling relationship?”

Nadal, for the first time in our interview, turns his full attention on me, a laser stare, and for a second I can imagine what it must be like to stand on the baseline waiting to receive his serve.

“But do you care about my relationship?”

Well, no, I have to admit, as the ace whizzes past me, of course I don’t give a toss about his relationship, I’m just trying to interview him. Somehow this breaks the tension, and we both laugh.

Rafa: “I understand your point, but I never talk about my girlfriend. I have a fantastic relationship with her, we understand each other. It is not a problem for her if I travel every week, and for me not a problem if, when I am in Majorca, she has to work all day.”

Me: “Do you talk on the phone though?”

Rafa: “No. When I am in a tournament I have to concentrate. Sure, I talk every day with her.”

Me: “I’m confused now.”

Rafa: “Forget about my girlfriend.”

Me: “Do you call your mother every day?”

Rafa: “Yes. My mother, my sister, my father, everybody.”

I am confused.

I can only record that there was a big difference in the enthusiasm with which he said he phoned his mother and sister every day, and whatever he was saying, or not saying, about his girlfriend. I’ll be pretty amazed if he ever marries her, though.

According to the Majorcan press, they split up last year, then got together again. Before that there were rumours that he was “close” to the Danish player Caroline Wozniacki. There was also a curious episode a year and a half ago when he made a “steamy” video with the Colombian singer Shakira for her single Gypsy and was photographed having what looked like a romantic dinner with her. It seemed like an attempt to rebrand Nadal as a stud. But then the rebranding was cancelled when Benito revealed that he was present, along with Nadal’s manager, Shakira’s manager and half a dozen others, so it was hardly a tête-à-tête. And someone who had seen the outtakes of the Gypsy video told me they showed Shakira having to tickle Nadal to get him to smile.

Listen: I dare say Nadal really is a lovely man (though I refuse to say lad). But the point I’m trying to make is, whether he is or isn’t I wouldn’t know, and you wouldn’t either. He lives within this tight stockade of team Rafa, and sticks to the script his minders have written for him. It must require great discipline to be so controlled, but then it must require great discipline to be a world champion anyway.

Oh, for a McEnroe, a Connors, an Agassi! There was a time, o best beloved, when tennis players had temperaments, when they threw rackets, shouted at umpires and had sex in broom cupboards and quite often behaved very badly.

The sheer boredom of living on this treadmill without even the consolation of a regular sex life must wear anyone down
Nadal has never thrown a racket in his life — his Uncle Toni trained him not to.

And the tennis player he most admires is Björn Borg, whom he admires precisely because he had “ice in his veins”, which was what always made him so deadly dull to watch. But Borg, we might note, retired at 26, not from injury but because he was burnt out. All that discipline must take its toll on a young man.

Even more than the injuries, the psychological attrition of having to be on your best behaviour each day, to play match after match, to give press conference after press conference, to meet and greet sponsors, the sheer boredom of living on this treadmill without even the consolation of a regular sex life must wear anyone down.

And for Nadal, already the best may be over. He was No 1 when I started this article, but could be No 2 by the time you read it. I asked if he might retire at 26, as Borg did. “If I have injury I could. I really don’t know. Nobody knows the future. But it’s something I prefer to believe is not going to happen.”

Rafael Nadal will take on Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick at the Aegon Championships, at the Queen’s Club, June 6-12; www.aegonchampionships.com

Toni Nadal attempts something difficult: to explain what is going on in his nephew's mind after losing four consecutive finals to the same rival. It had never happened to him before, 'not even against Federer,' the coach says.

'For one reason or another you have been close to winning and you haven't managed, of course that leaves a mark. He was not very focused in the Indian Wells final, where he was playing very well. He had beaten Djokovic very well in the first set, and he stopped inexplicably,' Toni Nadal says.

'In Miami he was close to victory, two balls away. One ball was just long... And, of course, it could have changed the picture. You get to clay and the two defeats weigh heavy. It is a vicious circle.'

'We have not found the feel for the ball,' he says. 'But the ball is just fine, what has not gone well has been our hand.'

'We have to try to play with a little bit more of a spark,' he told dpa. 'We have the diagnosis. Now we need a solution, which is to try to play more calmly.'

'When you have this hanging over you for a long time, fear comes on, as does anxiety. Many individual sportspeople, who are standing on a wire, think, 'I've walked so far, but look how much there is left!' And Rafael thinks, 'Man, how hard it is to be here!' And every now and then he has doubts. Rafael is someone who worries when things don't go well.'

'No, no, no. This is related to tennis, but anyway we are not going to make a drama of something that is going more or less well. We are just missing that consistency to be a decisive player,' Toni Nadal said.

What is Nadal's main problem?

'He is in a mess, he lacks the order he has always had, and that makes him lose confidence. He has been playing messy pretty much all year, and here he has got messier.'

'I go away from a tournament in bad shape when it was won and I lost it. I was affected by Indian Wells. Man, how can you let that chance go when you are winning! Or Miami,' the coach said.

'Rafael now has nothing, and he is in the quarter-finals. If we lose I will not leave with the feeling that we lost something, like in Miami or Indian Wells. Because there was something here, but it was not mine to take.'

 

Champions Back Nadal

On a day when three former French Open champions backed Rafael Nadal to win a sixth title at Roland Garros.


Earlier, 1995 French Open champion Muster joined the 1996 and 1998 champions, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Carlos Moya to pick Nadal as the winner of the year's second Grand Slam tournament in Paris.


With Juan Martin Del Potro locked at one-set-all with Novak Djokovic overnight in the third round of the French Open, Kafelnikov added further weight to his belief that Djokovic's winning streak would come to an end by picking Rafael Nadal to win the French Open for a sixth time.

"I still think that Nadal is going to win it and the reason is that it's best of five set matches and Nadal is just such a tough competitor," said Kafelnikov. "He understands when he needs to rise to the occasion. Even though Djokovic is unbeaten so far this year, over the whole tournament Nadal is going to grind down every opponent and the French Open is a special tournament for him. Nadal will definitely be in the final and I predict Nadal to win."
Moya and Muster agreed.

"I think Rafa will win it," said Nadal's good friend and mentor Moya. "He likes these kind of challenges and Djokovic is a new challenge for him. Nadal found a way to beat Federer when he was at his best and now there is a new guy at his best so he has to find a way to beat him too. It’s a new thing for him but he likes these challenges and we’re still going to see the best from Rafa at the French Open. I’m sure of that."

Muster said: "It's either Nadal or Djokovic. Obviously Djokovic has taken the last two matches on clay against Rafa but I'd still put my money on Rafa if I had to."


Vamos Rafa!

[original French article]

OOP: Rafa second on court Phillipe Chartier tomorrow Monday with a start of: 11 AM CEST, 10 AM BST, 5 AM EDT.

• [1] Rafael Nadal vs. Ivan Ljubicic  (Head to Head: 6-2)

Rafa's Facebook Update:

Os dejo una foto de ayer viendo el partido de fútbol con Toni. ¡Enhorabuena al Barça! Enseguida nos iremos a entrenar. 

Yesterday, watching the football match with Toni. Congrats Barça! We'll practice later.

Victoria Azarenka admires Rafa:

Who is the person you admire most?
Hard to say. I would have to say Steffi Graf for everything she has accomplished. I also admire Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I really look up to them. Outside of tennis, I'd say Johnny Depp. He's an actor I really like and I'd like to turn to acting in the future.

 Photos:
Tennis-Buzz sent me some photos they took of Rafa on RolandGarros Kids da. Gracias Ludmilla!


Video:

• RG Video of Locker Room day 8
• Lubicic talks next match with Rafa
• Sam Stosur thinks Rafa is the sexiest player!
• Gilles SIMON says Nadal is his favy player! 

 Articles:

Matt Cronin: Nadal Tries to rediscover his joy, and confidence

The 32-year-old Croatian is correct when saying that Nadal is not hiding anything. He spent much of the first week psychoanalyzing himself, breaking down his game, honestly confronting his lack of form. Nadal has always been a straightforward guy, but not as willing to bare his soul as he is now. He is willing to play out his own drama in front of the world, and instead of masking the pain of what he's been through over the past month, -- and at times throughout his career-he is bringing fans into his living room.

Ljubicic: 'No question' Nadal's confidence shaken

Ivan Ljubicic, who will play Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of Roland Garros, says players have noticed the Spainard's lack of self-belief. Five-time French Open champion Nadal has lost to world No. 2 Novak Djokovic in four finals this year.

"There is no question that his confidence is shaken," Ljubicic told reporters. "You see him in the locker room. He's saying it. He's not hiding it. He's just not feeling as comfortable as he was feeling last year. And even the matches he's winning, he's not dominating as much as he used to be. But we all know that the more tournament progresses, he's playing better tennis. He's definitely still the man to beat on clay. Obviously Djokovic—if they play the final, I think Novak will be slight favorite. But still, to beat Rafa on clay best of five, only one guy [Robin Soderling] managed to do that in so many years, so there's no question that it's still very, very difficult to beat him."

• Ljubicic targets 'shaken' Nadal at French Open 
• French Open 2011: Can Anyone Beat Rafael Nadal?
• Changeovers Offer Glimpse Into Players' Souls 
• Rafael Nadal getting stronger at French Open 
• French Open 2011: Five Bold Predictions for the Second Week 
• Rafael Nadal out of character

Found a great article on my favorite old skool players Borg..he talks his career & Rafa winning the French Open, below are quotes on Rafa the entire article is at the link.. Enjoy!


Borg Roots for Nadal to Join Him as New Rival Arises - NYTIMES

“I always have said that records are meant to be beat, not only in tennis but in all sports,” Borg, now 54, said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Stockholm. “I wish Rafa the best of luck. It would be great to see him win the sixth time or seven or eight times.

“I believe he has more French Opens inside of him, but now he has another difficult guy, another kind of challenge. It’s not only from Roger Federer and other good players. Another guy has suddenly started to play unbelievable tennis like no one expected. But that’s great for tennis. It’s rivalries, more people at the top, that’s what everybody wants to see.”

“I said this guy is going to be unbelievably good, and I don’t think there was even one person who disagreed,” Borg said. “When you saw him with the way he was playing and moving and the way he was hitting the ball on the court and with that energy. You could see it in his eyes and the face: This guy wants to be the best in the world.”

“I believe Rafa would have adjusted to Borg’s era and I believe Borg would have adjusted to this one,” Higueras said. “But obviously I think it was a lot more challenging playing with a wooden racket with a very small sweet spot. I believe that to be a good tennis player today is a lot easier just because of the equipment. Your technique does not have to be as precise.”

“Now everybody is talking to me about Rafa,” Borg said, laughing. “It’s nice, nice to be remembered, nice to talk about something I won quite a few times. Now it’s another guy who has a chance to win the same or more times. It’s just great to be part of the group, if you understand what I mean.”

But it is on clay that Nadal, like Borg, has done his most overpowering work. Nadal has won 31 of his 45 career titles on clay; Borg 30 of his 63. They are a study in contrasts and commonalities. Nadal is an exuberant, injury-prone left-hander from the Spanish island of Majorca who sweats plenty and covers the court like an action film star. Borg was a cool, poker-faced right-hander from Sweden who — rather like Federer — moved more elegantly than menacingly to the ball.

But this year Nadal has to worry about another man. Borg, who has watched Djokovic beat Nadal in their four matches this year, believes the two will also face off in the final at Roland Garros and has made tentative plans to come for the last two rounds.

Bjorn Borg during the 1980 French Open. Borg won six titles in eight years at Roland Garros.