Wimbly: Times Blog and Q&A #4

Photo by Michael Regan/ Getty Images

New entries up on The Times site. First, the blog:

Hi everyone,

This is just a quick one since I am writing this after the dinner and I realised it is quite late. I had a quiet dinner at home with Carlos, Maymo and Albert Molina. The rest of the team and some others preferred to go out to the village and to London. So I stayed and cooked – the same pasta as the other day (Benito did the shopping) – and enjoyed some quiet time at home getting ready for the match. It will not be an easy one and on court No 1, too. That is always a bit different from Centre and with the risk of rain. Hopefully it won’t be the case.

Interesting that he pointed out that Benito did the shopping. No idea why that’s interesting/odd to me, but it is.

*fingers crossed for no rain and uninterrupted play*

And now, the Q&A:

You always say that you like summer and sun, with tennis you chase summer 11 months of the year, don’t you get ever tired of it? Stella

No, not really. I love the sun and enjoy playing with nice weather. But let me remind you that we also play in the fall in Europe and that’s pretty dark! Not that I complain but just for the record.

Not complaining…just saying.

Now that you’ve played under the roof, how do you think it changes the conditions apart from getting humid? Is the court any faster indoors? Jamie

Indoors is normally a bit faster since the humidity has some influence but also since there is no wind. Conditions change.

Plus I’m sure he has less confidence given his record indoors (aka, look for his name on this list). At least it’s not indoor and fast hard court as is usually the case.

Are you fully satisfied with your volley skills now, or will you improve it more and more, and switch from a baseline game to serve-and-volley? Maria Rafael

There is always room for improvement on anything, and specially my volley! It would be nice to do just serve and volley but I think a lot of people would be doing passing shots like crazy.

Yeah, with the current state of tennis equipment and power players, it would be suicide to play mainly serve and volley. I love how it seems to be coming back a bit for change ups, though.

Rather than answer a question, please, tell us a joke? Jeanna

Is that a joke? :-)

Heh

For all the years that Nike has been sponsoring you, do you still have all the items they gave to you? How many sets of attire do they give to you per tournament? Jacklyn

Yes, I have one of each I have played with. I keep them as memory. And to answer the second part of your question, I normally get two to three shirts for each match calculating I could make it to the final.

So, if he made it to the final and played five setters all the way…he’d run out of shirts and have to play shirtless? ;)

Is there any chance that we will get to see you playing doubles at the Olympics with Marc Lopez? Sharon

That would be great but we both need to qualify!

Eeeeeeeeeeeee! That would be so awesome.

Hola Rafa! Who is your pick for the women’s title at Wimbledon this year? Kim Mackenzie

Tough one this is. I actually thought Na Li would have won.

Her game does seem more suited to grass than clay.

Do you enjoy coaching and would you ever consider coaching professionally when you retire? Gigi

I don’t think so but never say never!

I can’t see him wanting to get back into the non-stop travel groove…at least, not right away.

If you were going to a desert island and could only take three things with you, what would they be? Karen

I prefer to go to an island but not a desert! This way I can avoid answering this question.

Elevating the art of the non-answer answer.

Do you ever lose track of what the game score is? Anthea

No, never, or almost never. If I do I ask the umpire but it is not the normal thing!

It always cracks me up when a player lines up to serve in the wrong side of the court. Doesn’t happen often, though.

24 Jun 2011 | by miri | 11 Comments