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I need to train like Nadal - Broady

Liam Broady is hoping to learn from sometime training partner Rafael Nadal © PA Photos

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British youngster Liam Broady intends to take a leaf out of Rafael Nadal's book in order to make his assault on the world rankings.

Broady, who won the boys' doubles title at Wimbledon in 2010 and reached the singles final this year, has established himself as one of the world's top juniors, most recently winning the Orange Bowl Under-18 doubles title with Josh Ward-Hibbert in Florida last week.

A lefthander like Nadal, Broady has shared a practice court with the world No. 2, and was called upon to hit with the Spaniard before his US Open semi-final against Andy Murray in September.

And while he thinks Roger Federer has more natural talent, Broady believes it is Nadal's attitude towards the game that he needs to emulate.

"Rafa might say hello before practice but once we started, it was total concentration," Broady told The Times. "You look at Roger Federer practise, but he has such an incredible feel for the game that he just needs a short warm-up and he'll suddenly throw in a drop shot or hit a couple of backhand blinders past you just to keep that part of his game sharp.

"For someone like me, it is important to practise more like Rafa, those four hours a day on the court. You can only feel the benefits from that."

While he intends to spend plenty of time on court honing his skills, Broady believes developing his mental strength is key if he is to build on his current world ranking of No. 663.

"This sport is about learning things quicker than the other person," he said. "It's about being selfish too, because at the end of the day you have to put yourself first, especially in an individual sport. You can improve mentally all the time and that's why the levels of the game keep going up and up."

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