Practice with Rafael Nadal was like playing a machine, says Jamie Baker

I spend most of my time playing at unglamorous Challenger events in far-flung places, so finding myself across the net from Rafael Nadal, trading groundstrokes with one of the greatest players of all time on the Wimbledon practice courts, was a real culture shock.

Hitting with Nadal is not like playing with anyone else because of the way he smashes the ball.

It is hard to explain what it's like until you have felt that forehand coming at you. He puts an incredible amount of spin on the ball, which means that it is such a heavy ball to deal with.

However, it was an inspiring experience especially because he is just so business-like in practice. There is no messing around with him and there is none of the superstitious stuff he does on court — having to have all his drink bottles in the right order or walking on first. He just walks on with his racquet and plays.

I have seen some of the other top players practise at events and not all of them take it that seriously but Nadal is like a machine when he works out on the court. He hits full-out from the first ball to the last and that's kind of refreshing.

Management companies for the big names call up looking for local players to hit with and I am playing a lefty, Andreas Beck, in the first round of Wimbledon tomorrow and I could hardly have asked for better preparation.

I am fortunate enough to be able to call on Paul Annacone for advice and he's a great man to have in your corner because he coached Pete Sampras, who won Wimbledon seven times. I have known Paul for three years and we get on well.

My main focus is to try to become more aggressive on court and more attacking in my style of play, which isn't something that necessarily comes naturally to me. It's what I need to do to step up from the Challenger-level tournaments I normally play at to the main ATP Tour, which is where players like Beck play all the time.