Delta Tour of Champions
May 2005
Thomas Muster (Muster practiced with Nadal four times this week while preparing for his Delta Tour of Champions matches)
�Maybe he won�t win the French this year, maybe not next year, but there is going to be a time when he is going to win the French Open. He�s playing great this year and we�ll have to see how much energy he has left for the French because he�s very young and there are a lot of things for him to cope with mentally. He�s a young kid with lots of expectations. There will definitely come a time when he wins it, maybe he�ll win it this year, it wouldn�t surprise me, but the main thing is that he�s not waiting for it to come to him � he�s coming out with the attitude that he�s going to go for it and that�s already a very big step.
�He�s a lefty too and we have similar kinds of game. Looking at his game I completely understand what he is thinking, how he is trying to set up his game and play the next shot. I can read his game pretty well, but there�s a respect there. He respects what I did in the game and I respect the young fellow that he is. He has come along as a great young player with a long way to go but he�s already had very good success and has a very good mind for the game. The energy he has got and his attitude are very good for the game. He�s going to be very successful.�
Jim Courier
�I first heard about Rafael about two seasons ago. He took out Moya who has really been his mentor, and to do that at such a young age really signalled that this guy was �someone� for sure. We�ve watched him grow and mature his game the last couple of years.
�You have to start with his competitive instincts � he just loves the battle and it doesn�t matter whether he wins or loses the first set � he comes right back in the second ready to go. He hits a very heavy ball and has become a physical presence in the last couple of years and he uses the weight of his shots very effectively. One thing I think is underrated is his movement too. He plays good defence and he�s able to turn defence into offence with his power.
�I don�t think there�s a different challenge for him at the French Open as far as the opponents are concerned. The challenge will be the two week battle and also dealing with any kind of nerves he might have if he gets in towards the end. Obviously we are a long, long way away from the final weekend in Paris and a lot remains to be seen where he is then. I, and the rest of the tennis world who�s not playing any more, am knocking on wood and hoping that he stays healthy because he hasn�t played at Roland Garros yet because of injuries, and it would be great to see him compete for that title.
�Although his best surface is certainly clay I think he has shown that he can adapt to other surfaces. He had a run at Wimbledon on his debut there, he�s made the finals of Miami recently and he�s shown an all-court flavour which is good because my generation of players from the States � some of us could play well on all surfaces, a couple of us couldn�t, and I think that Rafael is putting his hand up in the air and saying: �I�m going to be around for a while�. When you look at the history of the game, players that show themselves to be champions at this early stage of their careers tend to go on to have big careers. For him the upside is fairly large because he�s already shown he�s not afraid of other surfaces. His game may not be adaptable to grass, but his attitude is. He�s firmly committed to it, and as the grass courts have firmed up at Wimbledon it�s given the groundstrokers an ability to compete there.�
John McEnroe
�He�s going to be one of the great players. He�s going to end the year as one of the top guys already. It just remains to be seen how quickly he�ll learn to play on grass and the faster surfaces. He�s played a lot of tennis and needs to make sure that he doesn�t overdo it, but he loves to play. You can see it, he�s so fired up and that�s what our sport needs � a guy that loves to be out there. He plays to the crowd and I love seeing that.
�The final was a fantastic clay court match and the sort of match that I look at and think �thank God I could play well on hard courts and grass because to have to play against those guys on this surface would have been unbelievably difficult. They gave everything they had and that�s all you can ask for from our sport � to see two guys giving 110%. That�s the beauty of youth � there were times when it looked like Nadal was out of it but he kept fighting back. Coria�s got experience and he wanted it bad, he wanted to show he was back and the best in the business on this surface, but Nadal just denied him � wouldn�t let him off the hook.
�There were probably 10 different times when it looked like Coria would win it, a number of times it looked like Nadal was going to win it. I think they�ll probably need a day off!�
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