Last Updated: January 08. 2010 5:06PM UAE / January 8. 2010 1:06PM GMT
Rafael Nadal, 23, has won six Grand Slam tennis titles and the singles gold at the 2008 Olympics, and led Spain to victory in the Davis Cup in 2004 and 2009.
Realise that you are just another person. This is one of the most important things I have learnt. On the tennis court you may be different, you may be a star, but when you walk off the court, you are just another person. Some people get confused about that. They think that because they are good at singing, playing tennis, football or whatever, they are good at everything. It is very important to stay grounded.
My will to win comes from my education. It doesnt matter what you do, whether you are a tennis player or whatever, education is the basis for everything.
Keep control of yourself. My uncle is my coach. When I was younger, if I threw my racket on the ground, or said something I should not have, he would throw me off the court. After that, I learnt to keep control of my temper. You can practise the forehand, you can practise the backhand, but you have to train the mind, too. You have a lot of moments of pressure in your life, not least in tennis, and if you have more control of yourself, you are better prepared to deal with these moments.
You must work hard, persist, to earn your rewards. I practise four to six hours a day, every day. Sometimes I think I dont want to practise, but I still do. The most important thing, even more than winning, is to do your best at all times and be satisfied with your performance.
Losing is not all bad. At match point I get very nervous in fact, Im nervous every time I go on court because Im scared of losing. In tennis, you win one day, but the next is like starting over. The only good thing about losing, is that it makes victory sweeter.
ราฟาบอกว่า ไม่เคยพูดว่าตัวเองจะมาชนะที AO I am not saying I am going to win the tournament.
I have played well enough [here] to have a positive result, [but] I don't know. You have to see the conditions. I am ready to win the tournament, but I am never going to say that I am going to win it.
Rafael Nadal is taking nothing for granted ahead of the defence of his Australian Open title.
The Spaniards brand of brutal brilliance was too much for all seven of his opponents this time last year - vanquished final opponent Roger Federer probably wasnt the only one he reduced to tears but Nadal knows well enough that the presence of his name on the honour roll will not give him a head start on the field this time around. His preparation has been solid rather than spectacular, and his surprise defeat to Nikolay Davydenko in the final of the ATP warm-up tournament in Doha last week was a reminder that he is not invulnerable.
"I am not saying I am going to win the tournament you never know before a tournament," Nadal said when asked by reporters in Doha to look ahead to the Australian Open. "I have played well enough [here] to have a positive result, [but] I don't know. You have to see the conditions. I am ready to win the tournament, but I am never going to say that I am going to win it. The only thing I can say is that I am playing well enough to have a positive result. I am very competitive against all the players in the world. And I am happy."
Happy will do, at least for now, and there must have been times during the second half of a mixed 2009 season that Nadal was struggling to feel anything but frustrated. After winning his sixth grand slam title in Melbourne, Nadal went on a tear and picked up titles in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. It was after that, however, that things went awry. He was beaten at Roland Garros for the first time in his career (by hitherto unheralded Swede Robin Soderling) and then missed out on defending his Wimbledon title after his chronic knee problems resurfaced. The remainder of the northern hemisphere summer was spent resting and recuperating before he returned to the US Open to make the semi-finals. In the home straight, he made the final of the Shanghai Masters before finishing 2009 on an upbeat note by helping Spain to another Davis Cup victory.
Nadals Davis Cup team-mate Fernando Verdasco has complained about how short the off-season was post-Davis Cup, and that reduced training block may yet affect Nadal, though conversely, his injury-enforced mid-year break he had could have nullified that. While the world No.2 has not won a title in seven months and had the top spot wrenched from his hands by a rampant, record-breaking Federer, the upside is that the 23-year-old from Mallorca will come into this grand slam with a good deal less pressure on his shoulders than rivals like Federer, 2008 winner Novak Djokovic, last years US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro or Andy Murray, with the latter still in search of his first slam title. Nadal may yet force history to repeat itself in Melbourne.
หลังจากนี้ราฟาจะเดินทางไปออสเตรเลียเพื่อเตรียมลงแข่งขัน Aus Open ค่ะซึ่งจะเริ่มในวันที่ 18 ม.ค. นี้ มาเชียร์ให้ราฟาป้องกันแชมป์ให้ได้กันค่ะ
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Last Updated: January 08. 2010 5:06PM UAE / January 8. 2010 1:06PM GMT
Rafael Nadal, 23, has won six Grand Slam tennis titles and the singles gold at the 2008 Olympics, and led Spain to victory in the Davis Cup in 2004 and 2009.
Realise that you are just another person. This is one of the most important things I have learnt. On the tennis court you may be different, you may be a star, but when you walk off the court, you are just another person. Some people get confused about that. They think that because they are good at singing, playing tennis, football or whatever, they are good at everything. It is very important to stay grounded.
My will to win comes from my education. It doesnt matter what you do, whether you are a tennis player or whatever, education is the basis for everything.
Keep control of yourself. My uncle is my coach. When I was younger, if I threw my racket on the ground, or said something I should not have, he would throw me off the court. After that, I learnt to keep control of my temper. You can practise the forehand, you can practise the backhand, but you have to train the mind, too. You have a lot of moments of pressure in your life, not least in tennis, and if you have more control of yourself, you are better prepared to deal with these moments.
You must work hard, persist, to earn your rewards. I practise four to six hours a day, every day. Sometimes I think I dont want to practise, but I still do. The most important thing, even more than winning, is to do your best at all times and be satisfied with your performance.
Losing is not all bad. At match point I get very nervous in fact, Im nervous every time I go on court because Im scared of losing. In tennis, you win one day, but the next is like starting over. The only good thing about losing, is that it makes victory sweeter.
As told to Helena Frith Powell