Rafa The Great

"What Nadal has done on clay over the past three years is nothing short of remarkable.
To be as dominant as he has been, winning 100 out of 101 matches! That's one of the greatest achievements in the history of tennis,and I don't feel like it is recognized to the extent it deserves." - Pete Sampras

"But it's unbelievable how he puts so much pressure on an opponent. They must think, "What I got to do, hit three lines to win a point?" We can learn from that and put it in our tennis." - Ana Ivanovic

"Actually I walked up to Rafael Nadal. And he is probably my favourite tennis player to watch and I walked up to him and I was like, 'I just want to meet you and don't want to take a picture or anything, I just want to meet you.' And I told him, 'I watch you all the time when you play tennis and I love watching you play tennis.' I told him good luck. That is probably the only person." - Michael Phelps

“He beat me when he was just 14-years-old. I consoled myself
thinking that I had lost to a future Grand Slam winner.” - Pat Cash

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="190" caption="Rafa at 14?"][/caption]

"What he did to (Roger) Federer in the final of Roland Garros, isn't something any other tennis player in the earth would do. Rafa destroyed Roger at France and later earned the Wimbledon title, which is far from his favorite surface. I believe that was an extraordinary effort. Nadal definitely deserves to be #1 in the world." - Lleyton Hewitt

"We feel very proud with having the number one and although it is impossible to reach his level we will try."
- David Ferrer

I remember that when I lost to Fernando González in Australia, having had to retire because of cramp in the fifth set, Nadal came over to me in the locker room. I was shattered, in a very bad way, and he put his hand on my shoulder and said: "Don't worry about it, the same thing happened to me two years ago when I was your age."
Things like that fill me with pride and I really value them." - Juan Martin del Potro