Top 90 Rafael Nadal Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It’s not the time to look for excuses.”

— Rafael Nadal

Featured in: Accountability Quotes, Excuses Quotes, Tennis Quotes

2. “I play each point like my life depends on it.”

— Rafael Nadal

Featured in: Athlete Quotes, Dedication Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Exercise Quotes, Tennis Quotes

3. “In your career you have a lot of good moments and bad ones. The important thing is to have enough motivation to keep working all the days with humility and trying to be a better player than before. I am going to try to continue doing this.”

— Rafael Nadal

4. “My motivation is tomorrow, just one day at a time, right?”

— Rafael Nadal

5. “The only way of finding a solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure.”

— Rafael Nadal

6. “I learned during all my career to enjoy suffering.”

— Rafael Nadal

7. “The glory is being happy. The glory is not winning here or winning there. The glory is enjoying practicing, enjoy every day, enjoying to work hard, trying to be a better player than before.”

— Rafael Nadal

8. “If somebody says I am better than Roger, I think this person doesn’t know anything about tennis.”

— Rafael Nadal

9. “However great your dedication, you never win anything on your own.”

— Rafael Nadal

10. “Is only a tennis match. At the end, that’s life. There is much more important things.”

— Rafael Nadal

11. “Stay healthy, do sports and above all have fun while doing sport. Competing or just for fun, whatever, simply enjoy and try your best. Working hard, working well with achievable goals normally pays off. Believe in the people that are with you and listen to those who have more experience.”

— Rafael Nadal

12. “You just try to play tough and focus point for point. Sounds so boring, but it’s the right thing to do out there.”

— Rafael Nadal

13. “If I am not playing at one hundred percent, it is going to be very difficult for me to win.”

— Rafael Nadal

14. “I’m really, really emotional.”

— Rafael Nadal

15. “I’m not the best player in the history of tennis. I think I’m amongst the best. That’s true. That’s enough for me.”

— Rafael Nadal

16. “I have lived my whole life with high intensity.”

— Rafael Nadal

17. “Even if I have already peaked, I have to believe I can improve. I wake up every morning, and go to practice, with the illusion that I’m going to get better that day.”

— Rafael Nadal

18. “I have no sense of humor about losing.”

— Rafael Nadal

19. “My motivation and aspiration is the same, being number one or being number five. So that’s the truth. And my goal is the same – it’s to always be happy playing, it’s to enjoy the game and improve always.”

— Rafael Nadal

20. “I will do as I usually do. Tomorrow is going to be a day like any other day.”

— Rafael Nadal

21. “Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions.”

— Rafael Nadal

22. “I’d rather lose an argument than get into a long discussion in order to win it.”

— Rafael Nadal

23. “I’ll never have a tattoo – I just don’t like them, and when you’re old they can look a disaster. As for piercings, I don’t like them on men.”

— Rafael Nadal

24. “I always work with a goal – and the goal is to improve as a player and a person. That, finally, is the most important thing of all.”

— Rafael Nadal

25. “You have to accept both losing and winning well. I’ve stayed calm when I’m winning and I’ve stayed calm when I’ve lost.”

— Rafael Nadal

26. “I always had the theory that the most important thing is be happy, enjoy what are you doing, and be fresh mentally.”

— Rafael Nadal

27. “I don’t have any idols, any heroes, nothing, no.”

— Rafael Nadal

28. “I appreciate a lot in this life; the things you cannot buy. Life is only once. I am happy being here and all the things that are a risk I normally avoid.”

— Rafael Nadal

29. “Playing well or playing bad, I have to play aggressive. I must play aggressive.”

— Rafael Nadal

30. “The problem nowadays is that children have become too much the center of attention. Their parents, their families, everybody around them feels a need to put them on a pedestal. So much effort is invested in boosting their self-esteem that they are made to feel special in and of themselves, without having done anything.”

— Rafael Nadal

31. “I live where I would like to live. I live in Majorca, Spain, and I am not sure there are better places.”

— Rafael Nadal

32. “It’s hard to say, ‘I don’t believe in God.’ I would love to know if God exists. But it’s a very difficult thing for me to believe.”

— Rafael Nadal

33. “I doubt about myself. I think doubts are good in life. The people who don’t have doubts I think only two things-arrogance or not intelligence.”

— Rafael Nadal

34. “That’s painful always to lose.”

— Rafael Nadal

35. “I normally listen to Spanish music – well, Latin music. I like a lot of singers.”

— Rafael Nadal

36. “I just try to win the match by fighting for every point, and running down every ball.”

— Rafael Nadal

37. “I love the beach. I love the sea. All my life I live within – in front of the sea.”

— Rafael Nadal

38. “People sometimes exaggerate this business of humility. It’s a question simply of knowing who you are, where you are, and that the world will continue exactly as it is without you.”

— Rafael Nadal

39. “I play because I have fun, if I don’t have fun on the court, there is something wrong. I am just a 19 year old boy that likes to do what he likes, nothing else.”

— Rafael Nadal

40. “When Federer has these patches of utter brilliance, the only thing you can do is try and stay calm, wait for the storm to pass. There is not much you can do when the best player in history is seeing the ball as big as a football and hitting it with power, confidence, and laser accuracy.”

— Rafael Nadal

41. “He has always been obedient, which is a sign of intelligence in a child because it shows you understand that your elders know better than you, that you respect their superior experience of the world.”

— Rafael Nadal

42. “I have no interest in becoming a tax exile and living somewhere I don’t want to – I just want to be at home with my family.”

— Rafael Nadal

43. “I was shy when I was a kid, I was very shy, but now I think I’ve improved a lot. I can speak OK with the media and with the people. My English is still bad but I feel a little bit better now than before.”

— Rafael Nadal

44. “You know, a lot of things changed. What never changed is the illusion to keep playing tennis, the illusion to keep doing well the things, and the illusion to be in a good position of the ranking and play these kind of matches.”

— Rafael Nadal

45. “Always I believe that I can play better. But I am happy.”

— Rafael Nadal

46. “Two weeks ago, I was in a fantastic situation, winning at Roland Garros. Now, losing in the first round, it’s tough. The tour continues. Life continues. This is a sport of victories, not a sport of losses. Nobody remembers the losses. I don’t want to remember the loss.”

— Rafael Nadal

47. “The thing, when you’re down two sets to love, is to stay calm, even though it’s hard, because people are freaking out, people are worried for you.”

— Rafael Nadal

48. “When one gets beaten by somebody better, one has to know how to lose with humility. Sure, I could have served better. Sure, I could have hit my forehand harder. But the truth was this was like an avalanche, and there was no way to stop it.”

— Rafael Nadal

49. “I like fishing. Not actual fishing – I like the peace and quiet of being at sea. It’s different.”

— Rafael Nadal

50. “As a tennis player you can win and you can lose, and you have to be ready for both. I practised self-control as a kid. But as you get older they both – winning and losing – get easier.”

— Rafael Nadal