Nadal's career escalated pretty quickly, he lifted his first Grand Slam trophy only 2 days after celebrating his 19th birthday to win another 11 at the very same tournament. The Spaniard triumphed for a total of 12 times at the Roland Garros what is one of the records that it will be almost impossible to beat. Now, he looked back on his 2005 victory against Mariano Puerta.

“When I arrived at Roland Garros for the first time in 2005, as always, I took it match-by-match, but I was aware that if I could play as well as I had played in the previous tournaments I had a chance. I was brimming with energy, the lack of awareness of someone so young, and clearly I was capable of reaching important balls, that were very difficult, returning them with power, with intensity and playing with enormous passion,” said Nadal. "I accepted everything as if it were normal and I think that that was one of the keys to being able to continue with the same intensity of work, passion and motivation.”

“When I won my first Roland Garros in 2005, I thought at that time that it was the biggest thing I would achieve in my career. Now, I’m going to play with peace of mind, I’m going to play more relaxed for the rest of my career. But I was completely mistaken. The years go by and you’re nervous for all of them, in all of them you want to play well, you want to have a chance to keep on winning and, honestly, the peace of mind that I thought winning Roland Garros would give me was fleeting. When you win, it’s easy to keep winning, because it gives you peace of mind, confidence, and energy," said Nadal. "Roland Garros has been important for everything throughout my career, to win on fast courts, on grass, anywhere.”