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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 15, 2009

Rafael Nadal

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

RAFAEL NADAL/M. Berrer
6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You were in such a unique position to be the only player in history who is naturally a right-hander to switch to lefty. What kind of advantage to you think that gives you?
RAFAEL NADAL: That's not exactly true, yeah, because I play football with the left foot, too. I don't know. For some things right; for another things the left.
I don't know if that can help me a lot.

Q. When you came in you were singing. You're in a good mood. Is everything going the way expect? Is your confidence level good?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I don't know. That doesn't mean nothing if I was singing.
Yeah, I think I am play well, no? I played a good match today, and sure, this tournament is nice for me. It's a really calm tournament, so I like it.

Q. I'm wondering, so many players, once they get to your level they move to Monte-Carlo or they move to?
New York or move some place that's very cosmopolitan, and yet you stay in your hometown. Why did you decide to stay in your hometown?
RAFAEL NADAL: Maybe they have to decide to come to Mallorca, because it's really good place. I'm there with my family. My family, we live not together but in the same building, so that's very important for that.
I have my friends from the school there, so I am -- I live in, well, very nice island. It's perfect for me. I never going to move from there. Well, I can't say -- you can't say never, no, but believe me, not.

Q. Two questions: One, how did you find the surface here? Second, do you feel like there is a big gap between you and Roger and Novak and Andy and the rest of the field?
RAFAEL NADAL: No. The surface is good. Not really fast and not really slow. So that's okay.
No, I feel -- well, we did well in the last few years. But there is a lot of people there, a lot of good players there, no? When I go to a tournament, I don't think about Djokovic, Federer, Murray. I think about my first round, my second round, if I win the third.
So Del Potro is there, Nalbandian is there, David Ferrer is there, Simon is there. A lot of good players are there. I think it's not fair to only think about four.

Q. For the last few years you've been the player to beat on clay. When clay court tournaments have been held, you've usually been the person who people expect to win the tournament. Do you think this is now the case or hard courts, as well? You're the player to beat?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, I don't know, no? Well, when it happen on clay, happen because you think that. But I never think that on clay, no? I go on court and play my best in every match. I know how tough is everything and how difficult is win every match. I know I can win and I can lose.
Here, well, for sure doesn't happen the same than clay, but if I'm playing well, I have chances to play good tournaments on every surface. But that's -- (in Spanish).
THE MODERATOR: Doesn't mean that I'm going to win.

Q. Do you think it's too premature for everyone to be talking about you winning the Grand Slam this year? And if so, how do you handle the pressure of all that talk?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't have to handle no one pression, because I haven't thought about that. It's not a goal for me. Maybe it's not the goal because can't be goal, so -- you know what I mean?
I have pression for play well here in Indian Wells. I think about Indian Wells. But the pression, is yourself. You put the pression in yourself, because doesn't change for me, no? After being No. 1 or No. 2, or win Australia or not, the true is Grand Slam is not impossible, but really, really difficult.
Right now I only focus on trying to continuing improve my tennis.

Q. You had an opponent today ranked a lot lower than you and you won quickly. Is that a good way to start a tournament, or would you rather have a little more of a test, or how much of a test was it?
RAFAEL NADAL: For me, it was perfect. I played a very comfortable match. I had the break in the first game in both sets, so that's really important. I feel -- I felt well on court, playing good.

Q. And your knee feels okay?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah.

Q. Is it important to you if you start a match that you finish it? We've seen you when you've been hurt, you've usually completed the match. If you're not prepared to play, then you don't play. How important is it for you, unless you can't finish a match, to complete the match?
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, what happened in Rotterdam? For that reason, you ask?

Q. Well, last year in Rome against Ferrero you had a blisters but you finished the match?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah. I think if you start the match, if you are not feeling -- not having something during the match or you feeling really, really bad so you can't be there, it's nice to finish the match for the opponent, for the tournament, and for yourself, too.
In the end, against Murray, it was the final in Rotterdam and if I retire in the second set, beginning of the second, maybe gonna be not disaster, but tough for the tournament, for him, because he won the final without play.
I lost 6-0 in the third and that's it. I tried. The sport is like this. Try your best anyway if you know that you don't gonna win.
In the end, that's the sport. I try the best all the time.

Q. You are probably the most physically intense player I have ever seen. How do you maintain that level of intensity? What is the balance of training versus your mental regime to do that?
RAFAEL NADAL: I always practice with high intensity. I like play tennis, it's true, but I like play tennis 100%. I don't like to go on court and -- well, when I play, I play, so...
Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Try my best all the time.

End of FastScripts

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