Rafa Quotes
"The Silence, that’s what strikes you when you play on Wimbledon’s Centre Court. You bounce the ball soundlessly up and down on the soft turf."
"Because what I battle hardest to do in a tennis match is to quiet the voices in my head, to shut everything out of my mind but the contest itself."
"If I made a mistake on a previous point, forget it; should a thought of victory suggest itself, crush it."
"Losing always hurts, but it hurts much more when you had your chance and threw it away."
"I am very, very keenly aware of how short the life of a professional athlete is, and I cannot bear the thought of squandering an opportunity that might never come again."
"Every single moment counts—that’s why I’ve always trained very hard—but some moments count for more than others."
"It’s an extreme state of physical alertness, but conquerable. I did conquer it."
"The more you crave winning, the greater the rush when you succeed."
"Respect for other people, for everyone irrespective of who they might be or what they might do, is the starting point of everything."
"It’s more important to be a good person than a good player."
"The greater the effort, the greater the value."
"Spartan regime where no whining was allowed."
"If you want something badly enough, no sacrifice is too great."
"The truth probably is that had one of us not been around, the other would have triumphed more."
"You have to remember that often in tennis you win by only the finest of margins."
"I watch Federer playing on video sometimes, and I’ll be amazed at how good he is; surprised that I have been able to beat him."
"Understanding the importance of humility is to understand the importance of being in a state of maximum concentration."
"It’s true that I’ve trained every day practically since the age of six and that I make big demands of myself."
"You’d end up feeling bitter, hating training, and even hating tennis, or becoming bored by it."
"It’s Rafa’s head that distinguishes him from the rest."
"In terms of mentality, he is out of this world."
"He is an assassin on the crucial points; his concentration is absolute."
"He gives nothing away for free; he conveys to his rivals the crushing, disheartening message that he is going to do all he can to beat you 6-love, 6-love."
"He plays with the spirit of the Alamo, a sensation that transmits itself to the crowds."
"People connect more with the battling underdog than with the effortlessly superior performer."
"The secret of the tremendous appeal he has worldwide is that you can see he is as passionate as McEnroe was, but he has the self-control of Borg, the cold-blooded killer."
"When the sport to which he has dedicated his life makes its call, he ceases to be a hedonist son of the Mediterranean and becomes a model of disciplined self-denial."
"Accepting things as they are and not as you would wish them to be, and then looking ahead, not behind."
"Pressure elates me. Yes, I buckle sometimes, but more often I raise my game."
"Which I had finally won, at the third attempt: the consummation of my life’s work, sacrifice, and dreams."
"It was Tyson versus Holyfield out there, and I felt as if I’d been in the ring with them, exhausted, as if I’d suffered a terrible beating."
"The satisfaction was enormous, of course. The whole family's. But we Mallorcans, we're not much given to celebration."
"In war, people do things that appear to be impossible."
"Remember that phrase of Barack Obama's, 'Yes, we can!'"
"Everything favored Federer at the start of the fifth, yet Rafa dominated him, tamed him, outplayed him."
"I talk a lot about the importance of the word 'endurance,' but another big word in my vocabulary is 'continuity.'"
"I am not a malingerer. If I felt healthy, I would never play truant from the tour."
"I don’t need these lessons in humility anymore."
"The secret lies in being able to do what you know you can do when you most need it."
"Talent alone won’t get you through. That’s just the first building block, on top of which you must pile relentlessly repetitive work in the gym, work on the courts, work studying videos of yourself and your opponents in action, always striving to get fitter, better, cleverer."
"I had made a choice to become a professional tennis player, and the result of that choice could only be unflagging discipline and a continual desire to improve."
"You just have to think, 'I can’t do anything about this, so why worry?'"
"He says this is crazy given everything I’ve achieved."
"To strut around like you own the game would be stupid, but come on, you’ve got to learn to know who you are!"
"Emotionally, he needs everything to be perfectly in order around him."
"The knowledge that if I won this game I’d be 5–1 up and the US Open would be practically mine was not useful."