Enduring passion to play for Spain

Rafael Nadal takes the Davis Cup very seriously. He wouldn’t otherwise be practicing on centre court at the DLTA Complex for almost two hours after spending about 10 hours onboard two flights. He sweated it out with world No 13 David Ferrer on Monday evening, gauged the hard court surface and weather conditions and even had time to smile for selfies with the few lucky ones who managed to come near the court.

The top 10 rarely play Davis Cup these days. The ATP Tour riches are more inviting. The 14-time Grand Slam champion, however, makes it a point to play whenever his battered body allows him to. Not only has he been instrumental in four of the five Davis Cup titles Spain has won since 2000, but this World Group playoff tie against India this weekend is extra special. It gives Spain the chance to get back into the elite stage of the group competition they have been out of since January 2014. “I am representing my country and that’s always special motivation. There’s always confrontation when you are not playing at home, so (it will be) difficult,” the world No 5 said.” We have lots of good players in the top 100. It’s tough for us not to be in the World Group. We are looking forward to coming back to the World Group, and that’s the chance to win here.” Since his debut in 2004, the 30-year-old has built an impressive 26-5 winloss record from 16 ties. Out of that, his singles record is 21-1. His debut match might have seen him lose to Czech Jiri Novak in straight sets, but he cemented his place on the side by winning the deciding rubber against Romania’s Radek Stepanek for Spain to reach the World Group quarters. The same year in the final against USA, he defeated Andy Roddick to give his side a 2-0 lead before Carlos Moya’s heroics ultimately winning them their second Davis Cup.