TENNIS in DEPTH.

This is how David Nalbandian sees him……”Whatever he does, is pure energy. He’s tremendous, just tremendous. The energy that he has to play a Grand Slam final is the same energy that he puts into playing Playstation, into eating a plate of pasta, into going for a walk, into talking about cars [formula 1] or football. He’s tremendous. To me, he’s a totally gifted person.

Rafa doesn’t sleep. I swear to you that Rafa doesn’t sleep. He’s up till 2 am either on the Playstation or doing physio work. The other day, he was up at 9am, played 18 holes (golf), then come back and trained, then played soccer in the evening. He’s tremendous. I could probably try to follow [his rhythm] for 1, maybe 2 days, then I will be tired in bed, but this guy keeps going, every day, the same.

People used to say ‘with Rafa, it’s doping, surely…’ It was frequently debated. And people would ask me, and I’d say, ‘you think that because you don’t know him. You spend some time with the guy and you realize that he’s like [the energizer bunny] 24 hours a day.”

This is from Novak Djokovic….“He has the capabilities already now to become the best player ever, I think he’s playing the best tennis that I ever seen him play on hard courts. He has improved his serve drastically. The speed, the accuracy, and of course his baseline is as good as ever. So he’s a very complete player.”

“It’s just great for somebody who had so much success as he did, very young age, and to be able to continue motivating himself to perform his best each tournament, each match he plays regardless who he has across the net. You just have to put a hat down for this guy, everything he does on and off the court. Great champion, great person, and great example of an athlete.”

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