Translation of this article http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/anden_sport/tennis/article2261095.ece - The world's best tennis player, Rafael Nadal, has had Danish help up to the Masters tournament in Monte Carlo.

18-year-old Andreas Moltke-Leth has been Nadal's hitting partner for the last four days, and important time where the Spaniard has had to transition from hard court to the European clay season.

The young Dane is now crossing his fingers that Nadal will be in top form for the Monte Carlo clay.

"It's a tricky question, because I don't know - he hasn't played yet. I hope so. I gave it 100% and I got a lot of praise from Nadal's coach," says Andreas Moltke-Leth.

The Dane trains every day at an academy on Mallorca, but he was in Denmark when the approach from Nadal came.

"The owner of the academy knows Nadal's coach Toni who wanted to know if the academy had a player who had the level to hit with Nadal.

"They rang me and I took a plane to Mallorca. I was on the court Monday and hit for a few hours with Nadal, and afterwards they asked me if I wanted to hit the next day and possibly the rest of the week. And it went from there.

"I ended up hitting with him until Thursday, and he left Friday for Monte Carlo," says Andreas Moltke-Leth, for whom it was an excellent learning experience.

"It was exciting, difficult and fantastic to play with the world's number one, and on clay, which is his favourite surface. He's the king of clay," says the young Dane.

"All the training was built up around Nadal, and I had different tasks. I tried to remind myself that he was ordinary flesh and blood, and it went so well he wanted to hit with me the whole week," says Moltke-Leth.

He has a few things to take away from his meeting with the world's number one.

"It doesn't matter with whom he's practising or playing against, he gives 100%. He's totally on, and it's like he's playing the most important match of his life.

"I'm taking that with me, because I have a tendency to drop in tempo when I meet a player who's not as good as I am."

Nadal's method of building up his practices around small modules of 20 minutes' length followed by 10 minutes rest has also inspired the Dane.

"He cools his body down a bit, and then he has to find his level and rhythm again - and again. He does that about seven times per practice session, where I normally do it only twice, because I don't take as many breaks," says Moltke-Leth.

The Dane hopes to become a top-ten player himself. Nadal had a few parting words for him.

"He said good luck with my career, and I'd have a nice future if I gave 100%.

"I know I'm talented, but it's all about hard work. A lot of factors have to come together before I break through, so those words weren't what meant the most to me this last week," he says.

Nadal is top seeded in Monte Carlo and will see action Monday at the earliest.

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