TENNIS LEGENDS VODCAST WITH CARLOS MOYA AND FRANCSICO ROIG ON RAFAEL NADAL

What makes Rafa Nadal the player he is?
Carlos Moya: To me he's a perfectionist. He wants to do all well. Even when we practice, we do like duel, it's 40 balls, unbelievable so hard. First balls if he misses, he's upset. So I said "come on, you're not gonna have playing and hitting like that. None of your rallies you're going to have is gonna last 40 balls. So don't worry the point is gonna finish before". He always wants to be better, he is a competitor. He never give up. He's very demanding with himself. So that's one of the things that I think make him so good. And on the other side, he gets a lot of stress from that. It's not just about winning, he wants to win and play well. He wants to feel 100%. He wants to play well every point and that's not possible. So we have to put a lot of pressure on that with him, to chill, relax a little bit. You need to play 100%  maybe 10, 15 matches per year. The rest you have to try to win and to stay in shape, practice well. And then when you have these important matches try to be at 100% but it's impossible to play 80 matches a year playing your best, that's impossible.

What is it like to be a key member of Rafa’s coaching team?
Carlos Moya: I mean, you never agree 100 percent with everyone. That's that's not possible. But the thing is that what I said before, that the whole team we have a clear view of what we want from Rafa, that we agree on 99 percent of things.

So it's good to have four eyes, two different voices, to pass the message to Rafa. And I have to say that we also rely on Carlos Costa, Carlos is his agent, but he was a top player before. So he's also a voice of experience, of knowledge of tennis that we can talk to him not as an agent, but also as someone who knows about tennis a lot. So I think we fit very well. We talk a lot. With the changes we wanted, with the serve and some other things we were talking a lot, he was sending videos and he was giving his opinion, we were talking. Once you have a player with that calibre, you have to put your ego aside and work for him.That's something that I have no doubt about that. And I think Francisco [Roig] is the best partner and part of the team that I can have, I am very happy with him and with the rest of the team.

What motivates Rafa Nadal at this stage of his career?
Carlos Moya: I think his motivation is going to be very important. He was struggling a little bit last year at around this period, before the clay court season. Once his motivation was back, which was probably in Madrid, then his level was back as well. If he’s healthy, if he’s practicing well and his motivation is there, I think that he is going to compete in every single way. The guys at this level –as soon as their motivation drops and they’re not at 100% -they want to feel the motivation. So, as long as the motivation is there, I think he’s a competitor. He wants to win no matter what game he’s playing: golf, PlayStation. So, as long as this motivation is there, I think he’s going to be able to keep competing and to keep winning.

How do you coach a player like Rafa Nadal?
Francisco Roig: We had a clear goal that especially with a player that we know is at the end of his career. He spent a lot of energy on all of his career. So the goal was to play more aggressive, not try to serve better, to be more aggressive, to be sure. That was the point. And obviously always to see for two guys the same way, it's not easy. But almost 90 percent of the time we agree and we have a lot of communication. Today with the technology everything is easier and Carlos is a master on technology. He gets all the statistics. And we'll always know that he's the king of statistics. So this helps a lot. And I think it's a great communication. Also, I have to say that Rafa put everything to be everything easier. He's a guy he likes to be always with a good relationship with everyone. He hates the problems. So it puts everything easy under the way.

What motivates Rafa Nadal?
Francisco Roig: It's amazing I think - all these three guys Novak, Roger and Rafa. Maybe because they are together on this run, in this race, one motivates the other one. Probably if Rafa doesn't exist, maybe Roger has already stopped playing tennis five years ago. But because of this, I think one makes the other one better. And the ambition is huge. I mean, I can see sometimes with Rafa, he's winning a tournament, a 250 tournament in the ATP, and he's so happy about that - a guy who has won 12, 13 Grand Slams when he was like this and he was playing a small tournament. And he was so happy about that. You can see how much he likes to win. Still, winning otherwise there is no chance at this age after such a big success to try to keep winning tournaments, you need this ambition.

And Rafa also he needed it from the beginning. People were saying that Rafa - at the beginning of the career I remember - these guys are going to play for three, four years only. How many times have we listened that? So this is one of the arguments. I think that's why Rafa from the beginning, he wanted to change his game. But at the same time, to change the game for a guy that, he was number one. You have to all agree with this 100% because he has succeeded already. How to change something that hasn't changed. But he wants to do it. And still today he's listening. So it's the only key I think to keep winning.

Carlos Moya and Francisco Roig were speaking exclusively to Eurosport's Tennis Legends podcast. Download the full podcast now.