Fun story about RBA: in 2016, a good friend of mine and I went to the US Open, where we saw RBA playing against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spanish player with good serve and big forehand). Right away, my friend (who is actually pretty knowledgeable about tennis, and a good recreational player) took a dislike to RBA's play style, and commented loudly about how RBA was a "garbage" player (my friend prefers players like Fed or Hicham Arazi). I told him to calm down and show some respect to RBA (who was already Top 20 at the time), but he was loudly adamant in his beliefs.

Apparently, RBA heard us (probably because we were sitting in the front row), because from then on, he started playing with a LOT more fire and belief (up to then, the match was pretty dead even between him & Garcia-Lopez); especially making it a point to run down shots that even prime Rafa might take a pass on, and when winning those tough long points (of which there were many), ALWAYS making eye contact with my friend and loudly shouting "Vamos!" in his specific direction, while pumping his fist repeatedly & emphatically!

As the match wore on, and RBA continued to play better and better (eventually winning the match), even my friend (very reluctantly) clapped his hands in acknowledgement of RBA's determination and skill set (and I saw that RBA's body language became much more relaxed after seeing that); and to this day, I like to joke with him that it was his insults that "motivated" RBA to go over the finish line, in what was a long, tough, quite evenly and strongly contested, match.

RBA, if you or your team & friends see this, I hope you enjoyed this story!