RafaLint: September 30th

Today’s win was Rafa’s 60th of the year! His winning percentage is 89.55%. Booyah!

Ooops.

pke sent in this match photo gallery and here’s another one.

Much better match play-by-play than mine. Same site also has a match report.

Ye old standard wire story about the match.

Marca.com report on the match. (Google mangling) So Costa is there as his coach? That makes sense.

Jon Wertheim says :P to the coaching outrage.

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 8 Comments

Thailand: Rafa and the Prime Minister

After his second round match, Rafa met with the Prime Minister of Thailand.

Photos by PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images, AP Photo, and Victor Fraile/Getty Images

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 16 Comments

Thailand: 2nd round photos

Photos from today’s…yesterday’s? match against Bemelmans.

Photos by PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images, REUTERS/Damir Sagolj, Victor Fraile/Getty Images, and AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 16 Comments

Thailand: 2nd round videos

Last game:

Posted by vamosrafelnadal.

Highlights:

Posted by danitrack.

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 12 Comments

Thailand: No doopts

To start his Thailand Open, Rafa took on #195 Ruben Bemelmans in their first ever meeting. They do this right after the tournament’s opening ceremony…on Thursday. Guess the matches that already happened didn’t really matter. After being broken almost non-stop in the first set, Bemelmans settled down a bit in the second and made things a bit more competitive. He’s got a nice serve and some good shots, but the outcome of this was never in doubt. Rafa’s through: 6-1, 6-4.

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 39 Comments

Thailand: Practice session

Video from a practice session:

Posted by EFE.

30 Sep 2010 | by miri | 8 Comments

Interview with Toni: “I prefer being too hard”

Looks like Toni is giving interviews with any outlet that wants him in order to show over and over again what a hardass he is. ;) The latest is a long and interesting interview with XLSemanal. Thanks to Inés and Bee, we have an actual translation instead of a Google mangling. This translation was a lot of work! Please do not reproduce it elsewhere without their permission.

“I prefer being too hard”

After winning the U.S. Open, the world has surrendered at the feet

29 Sep 2010 | by miri | 67 Comments

Atch2, Rafa & a tree

We drove down to Hua Hin on Monday morning of 27 September 2010 planning to see some Rafa practice near his hotel and to attend the tree planting ceremony. It turns out that Rafa had a last minute change of plans and was checking out as I was checking it. I just missed him because he took the private exit. I was totally disappointed. The staff later told us that Rafa would be back tomorrow morning for the

28 Sep 2010 | by Atch2 | 54 Comments

Thailand: Tree planting videos

You just knew there was going to be buttloads of these, right? *limbers up fingers*

First up, some from our own Atch2 who was at the ceremony:

Thanks for letting us see part of the ceremony the news wouldn’t show us. Love Rafa & Pico on the sofa and Rafa investigating the handiwork in the flower bracelet.

Now on to the

28 Sep 2010 | by miri | 10 Comments

Thailand: Practice and tree planting photos

Rafa looking impossibly adorable during the tree planting ceremony. So nice of them to put him in that bright pink – he looks wonderful in it.

Photos by AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong, PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images, REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom, REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang, and AP Phto/Sakchai Lalit

More photos here.

28 Sep 2010 | by miri | 21 Comments