Spanish tennis ace Rafael Nadal said Tuesday that he chose to stay in the Olympic Village in Beijing rather than in a luxury hotel in order to "live the atmosphere" of the Olympic Games.
"I have come to the Olympic Village because I want to live the atmosphere of the Olympic Games and share the experience with all of the other Spanish sports people. It is something very special and I was really looking forward to being here," Nadal told the Diario AS newspaper.
Nadal will be officially named the number one tennis player in the world on Aug 18, ending Swiss Roger Federer's four-year stay at the top of the world rankings.
The pair are favorites to go head to head for the Olympic gold medal later this month and Nadal has more chances to win.
The player, who surprisingly lost in the recent Cincinnati Masters, is cool-headed ahead of the Games.
"This is a sport of defeats and defeat can come along at any moment, because everyone wants to win and there is a great deal of competition," he added.
Nevertheless, the young Spaniard has no thought of another defeat on his mind at the moment.
"I am here with the aim of doing as well as possible. But you have to take things calmly. I am not thinking about defeat, but about what lies ahead of me now, which is the Olympic Games," said Nadal.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)