Rafael Nadal’s cliches are music to ears of tennis fans in Spain

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Rafael Nadal’s comments at Monday’s news conference in advance of the Davis Cup final between Spain and Argentina were enough to put most of us to sleep. The Spaniard talked about being ‘very excited,’ trying his best and wanting to win.

Yawn.

But for tennis fans in Spain, those words were reason to celebrate. They were in stark contrast to the comments he made just a few days earlier after a tough time at the ATP world finals.

Following back-to-back losses to Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week, Nadal told reporters, ‘I had little bit less passion for the game probably because I was a little bit more tired than usual,’ when asked why he hadn’t appeared up to his usual form since losing to Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open final.

Nadal has been defeated by Djokovic in six finals overall this season and also lost his No. 1 world ranking to the Serbian player.

‘This year was a tough year for me,’ the 10-time Grand Slam winner said last week.

So it was nice to hear some upbeat words -- as unoriginal as they might have been -- coming out of his mouth on Tuesday as he and his teammates prepared for the Dec. 2-4 event in Seville.

‘It’s a pleasure playing in front of my crowd, in front of the Spanish people,’ Nadal said. ‘Always the feeling is very special when that happens. We’re all very excited, and we’ll try to play our best and win.’

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.