Rafael Nadal On His Rivalry With Roger Federer | David Letterman

I am fine. Welcome to the show. Welcome back to the city and you're getting ready for the open. Oh my god It's just around the corner, isn't it? Yeah Now when you approach a tournament as the defending champion any different than going in as not the champion Well a little bit more calm, you know, we have less pressure because I I won that last year But anyway always exciting to come back and you know a lot of motion Yeah, so but I would think there'd be more pressure because the the expectation is I should win it again Maybe but I Cannot say that but anyway, do you think you will win it again? For sure. I think gonna be really difficult All right. So take us through the tournament. How many matches do you play to get to the final? Well, I have to win six to be in the final six matches And as we know tennis can it can be quick can be a quick game You can wrap up a game in a couple hours or they can go four or five six hours. Can't they? Yeah, you never know what's going on and you've had the marathon matches for example, Wimbledon 2008 I had a lot of long matches in my career. Yeah. So how do you what do you do to prevent? How do you stay in shape? You know, I used to and it would get cramps. Do you ever get cramps? Not usually I'm lucky but you're just a kid too, right you're 25 years old. Yeah Yeah, and what do you do to stay peak performance? How do you keep that edge? Well, I Have to practice every day. That's what I do. Do you get tired? What are you starting playing as a kid, right? How old were you when you started playing? I started to play when I had three years old three years old a long time ago And your parents got you into the game Well, really my uncle my uncle was a tennis coach from there from my small village and I started in Spain Yeah, yeah, we're in Mallorca Mallorca. Yeah, and what is the life like? There's island Mediterranean Yeah, it's an island. It's fabulous the like they're very calm, you know, I am from there It's the best place in the world and and is it it's the bigger of the two you have Mallorca and Menorca, is that correct? Well, we have Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera, but Mallorca is the bigger one. Yeah, and The language there is not exactly Spanish is we well we talk Mallorcan so is close to Catalan a little bit different What so how much different for people living in mainland Spain and then they go to Mallorca. How big is the change there? Language. Yeah, they don't want to go. They don't want to understand us for sure. Is that right? Yeah So so you speak Mallorcan? I think Mallorcan, but you speak Spanish Yeah, we speak the same language than in Catalonia in Barcelona But if some people from Barcelona comes to Mallorca, they're gonna be in trouble to understand us too. We talk too fast for them You ever been to Trenton You're a big deal in Spain you're like a Spanish hero, right? Well, we have a lot of heroes in Spain Fernando Alonso, do you know him? I know him. He's a big hero. Also, isn't it? Well sure Yeah for Formula One champion. Do you guys ever get together and just go out? Yeah. Yeah, really. Where did you go? We did a charity event together a few years ago. Yeah Well, we are in a very good era of sports in Spain Who did you look up to when you were a kid starting out with your uncle as a tennis player Manolo Arantes? Well, I didn't have that lucky to watch Manolo Arantes play tennis. I wasn't in his world Who did you like as a kid? Well, I love it Carlos Moya was a he's a close friend of mine and he he's from Mallorca, too So when I started to play tennis he was my yeah, yeah, what about that Chrissy Everidge ever see her Yeah, hey, I had an interview with her You're 25 years old how much longer do you want to play now? You know the Bjorn Borg, you know You've heard of Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe and they they kind of had that rivalry that made both of them Great. Do you do you feel like a Federer and you have that same chemistry that same dynamic to make one another greater? Than if they had not been playing tennis if they had not existed you never know no, but I Think every rivalry is completely different McEnroe ball had the fantastic rivalry few time ago and Further and man we having a lot of matches last couple of years now Exciting is emotional but at the same time We have a very good relationship and this is good because we I think we understand the tennis is Without without him or without a guy like him. Would your tennis be as good as it is today? Probably not, you know, really so it is necessary to have that guy to to work against and work with innocent well, sometimes in the it's better if he's not there because This is you after defeating Roger Federer at the 2008 Wimbledon July 6 2008 I Have no idea what this is. It's like you and your underpants And these are these now you're manufacturing your own tennis rackets no Well, they are doing really well for me Alright, but what does this mean? Babalette well, it's the brand but It's the brand of the of the racket that I am playing Yeah I played with this brand all my life right and they they pay you to use this record or they just do you use it? And you win and therefore I use it just because I like the racket. Okay. Well, we have any balls over here We're gonna hit some balls into the other Get to get some balls just knock them out there and we'll see what happens here I'll take a couple. Thank you very much. I'll just take a couple clear the obstacles All right. Oh Again, thank you. Just can't do it. Look out. That's gonna be a lawsuit. That's a good luck at the open