Clay Court Quotes

I don't think it's a low point being in the finals of the French Open, three points away from the victory.

Nadal's the best player in history on [clay], and he is one of the best-ever players that played this game.

I've always loved Charleston. It's always been one of my favorite tournaments.

Maybe I have to work a bit harder on clay. It's a challenge and I've always liked challenges. Whether I will ever win the French and master playing on clay, who knows? But I'll give it a shot.

We love to play on clay.

Everybody knows I'm not a clay-court specialist. I'm not feeling so well on this surface.

We have been playing every summer on clay since I was five years old, so it is an easy surface for us in Belgium.

I still rate my first victory in the French Open at Roland Garros as my best win ever.

Last four months were great for me, was probably one of the best four months of my career, playing unbelievable in the clay court season.

I had a harsh lesson in 1996, when I lost four times to Andres Gomez on clay.

My experience on clay is less than possibly on hard and grass courts, but in terms of my game style and my physical abilities, I think there's no reason why I can't adapt well to the surface and really try to maximize what I can do well on clay.

The conditions change so much at the French Open, you know, you have to be prepared for something you really don't know what it is. You can practice in the morning and it's fine, and the weather is great then you come to play in the afternoon and it is drizzly and the conditions are totally different.

At Wimbledon if it is slightly wet you don't even play the match. At the French Open you need to just get on with it and somehow adjust.

When you're a kid and practice on clay, you're always, 'Oh, I wish I could win Roland Garros.'

The problem is not the claycourt. The problem is, you know, rather something to do with the conditions on center court. Because I've played well on Suzanne Lenglen, on the other courts. But the Chatrier court is really, really big, and I just haven't had enough play on it. Maybe I come here next year and play a week on this court, if I can, if the French Federation lets me. We'll see. I've been playing well in other tournaments, in Davis Cup on clay. So for me it's not the surface, it's rather maybe the court.

Getting married is great, and I feel really good away from the court, and my private life and stuff is good. But you still need to train and work hard. Like, I didn't go on a honeymoon after we got married; I went to Barcelona and trained for 10 days to get ready for the clay-court season. It's been good, but you still have to put the work in.

I have played some good matches against Rafa on clay.

Just because you win the French Open it doesn't mean you can do well at Wimbledon.

That result at the French was a big break for me. I had been playing quite well up until that point but nobody really expected me to do well on clay - it was my worst surface. I had had some success on the clay but I was a set and a break up in the semi-final against Jausovec and maybe the enormity of the occasion got to me.

More than half of the matches are won in the dressing room for him. The guy he's playing against is sitting in the locker-room thinking 'oh my God, I'm going to play Rafa Nadal on clay in five sets, that's going to be painful.'

It's tough to control the ball on the clay.

There is some moments on the career of everyone that are important ones. Is obvious that first title on clay makes a big difference. After that, I was confident enough to keep going, winning in Barcelona, in Rome, then in Roland Garros.