These tics do bother me. Could I play a match without them? Yes, without some of them. I don't have to touch my nose or put my hair behind my ears before I serve. That's possible to stop. Not putting the bottles in front of my chair, I could go without that, too. But adjusting my underwear, that I could never get rid of. It's impossible.
Managed profile
Not claimed by Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
RN
Rafael Nadal
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Spain · b. 1986
Sport
About
Won twenty-two Grand Slam singles titles, including fourteen French Open championships, and Olympic gold in singles in 2008 and doubles in 2016. He retired in November 2024 after the Davis Cup finals in Málaga.
8 answers
If I don't do that with the bottles, then I sit down, I could be thinking of something else. If I do always the same things, it means that I am focused and I'm alert to think purely about tennis.
Sometimes when I'm in the first round or second round, and I'm not playing well, I say, okay, just accept it. Don't get frustrated. Just accept and focus.
I don’t think I have one in particular. I am pretty calm. Just some small things that I better not comment on :-).
Selfishness and no respect for the others.
Just normal people from my hometown, from my country.
Playing tennis, competing, winning, but also being at home in Spain, in Majorca, with my friends and family.
The word says it all. To be a friend means that they are always there, for the good or the bad.
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Rafael Nadal did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.