Rafael Nadal will visit both sets of grandparents on Christmas Day, much as he would most days when he is in Manacor, his Majorcan home from home, for the essence of the second-best tennis player in the world is that he acts like it only when he is on a court, and there he has never been content with second best. At home, and at rest, Nadal is a son and grandson to savour.

When it is put to Sebastián, his father, that it is not usual that his son has remained normal when so much is at stake — he has earned nearly $9 million (about £4.6 million) in prize-money alone — the look one gets is of incredulity. “What is normal is the way he is, no?” Nadal Sr says.

There may be a hint of rebellion in the way Rafael plays, a style that is pure pugilism, but take the 20-year-old away from the prizefighting confines where he plies his trade and he is the personification of grace and good manners. His family would not have it another way. (His uncle and coach, Tony, has said that he would walk away the first time Rafael throws his racket, and he never has.)

Apart from the female street sweeper who planted a kiss on his cheek — and the interview for Spanish television by Andoni Zubizarreta, the former Barcelona goalkeeper, who suggested that the Nadal family ethic was like that of his team, who mesmerised Europe — yesterday was like any other in Nadal’s preparations for a tilt at Roger Federer’s sporting supremacy. He worked himself into the ground and came up chivalrous.

Nadal describes Christmas as “one of the nicest moments of the year” and, yes, as a child he believed in Santa Claus. “I love the story of the three kings coming with their gifts to the baby king — it is the sign of new life, of new belief,” he says. He has presented his father with a beautiful car, one that Sebastián considered too extravagant for his taste.

“Rafa” will leave his magnificent apartment in Manacor on December 28, stopping in Madras, India, and then Sydney before alighting at the Australian Open in Melbourne, hoping, like everyone else, to get off to a flyer in the new year. He would like to spend more time at home, enjoying his mother’s cooking, the company of his grandparents, of his younger sister and the girlfriend he has known since childhood and whose identity he keeps a secret, but he knows what has to happen.

“I shall see some friends, we will have a little party before I have to leave and I wish it could be bigger, but it is important for me to be near my family — here is a small place and it is easy to watch over them all,” he says. Because, basically, that is the kind of superstar we are dealing with.

In the locker-rooms of the world, before he goes out to perform, it is all anyone can do to keep him from taking great lumps of concrete from the walls. Whereas the world No l from Switzerland is the epitome of calm detachment, Nadal cannot rest, his familiar bounding warm-up routine, more Frazier than Federer, is not a show; it is how he is.

He reckons that he has “not stopped playing tennis” since his defeat by Federer in the semi-finals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last month was followed by an exhibition match in Seoul, South Korea, where they captivated a sellout crowd.

“I am practising hard, playing real physical tennis,” Nadal says. “I am trying to serve a little better, to use more aggressivity, trying to hit more winners off my forehand and to step into the court more and playing not so much from the baseline. I have spent a lot of the last few weeks on this aspect.

“I can always improve in lots of ways. I have been on the tour for three years and that means I have learnt a lot. Someone like [Andy] Murray is just starting out, but, like me, I know he can do anything, he is a great young player. He has improved so much over the last few months, with his ranking and his game. He plays with more concentration. He has a wonderful chance to be a top-ten player, but there are a lot of young players coming through, like [Richard] Gasquet, [Tomas] Berdych and [Novak] Djokovic. They all want success.”

How many of those, one wonders, would play host to the local and international press and not feel ill at ease.

Nadal is as comfortable having a cocoa at the bar beneath the apartment block he shares with his parents and paternal grandparents as he is locking swords with Federer. “I always can improve, with players and with the public,” he says. “I am close with those I know and my attitude is that ‘I’m 20, why should I be any different because I am No 2 in the world?’ My family doesn’ t treat me any different. I am no different.”

Looking back

January Misses Australian Open with a foot injury

February Dubai Open: beats Roger Federer in final

April Monte Carlo Masters: beats Federer in final; Seat Open, Barcelona: beats Tommy Robredo in final

May Rome Masters: beats Federer 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 in final; equals Björn Borg’s record for most wins as a teenager

June French Open: beats Federer 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 in final; breaks Guillermo Vilas’s record for most consecutive wins on clay

July Wimbledon: loses 6-0, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 to Federer in final

August US Open: loses in quarter-finals to Mikhail Youzhny

October Madrid Masters: loses to Tomas Berdych in quarter-finals

November Masters Cup, China: loses to James Blake in round-robin and Federer in semi-finals