Teenage Nadal was wake-up call I needed

Some of you probably know that Rafael Nadal and I have been competitors and good friends since our teenage years, but you may not realise he was a major influence in my decision to leave home at 15 to move to Spain.

As juniors, our countries used to play against each other in team competitions such as the European Winter Cup, though I never actually had to play him as I was a year younger and played No 2 for Britain while he led the Spanish team. But we weren't holding tennis racquets when he said something that led to me moving to Barcelona.

Instead, we were part of a group of guys playing racquetball.

I was asking all the guys in this group who they were practising with and when Nadal said Carlos Moya, it was a big wake-up call.