RafaLint: May 24th
The draw for Roland Garros will take place at 11:30am local time on Friday. (aka, 4:30am mine and just 5.5 hours away. Sleep? What’s that?) The tournament says you can follow the draw here.
Today’s recommended reading:
No surprise, it’s by Steve Tignor: Chasing History: Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg.
Articles:
- Remember Paris – by Alison Kim (atpworldtour). Tennis greats look at Rafa’s six Roland Garros wins.
- Tebbutt: Une Belle Journée A Roland Garros – by Tom Tebbutt (lovemeansnothing.ca)
- The Most Dominant Grand Slam Performance of the Open Era – by Rob York (tennisconnected.com)
- Nadal’s bid for record 7th French Open vs. Djokovic’s try for 4th Grand Slam title in row – AP via washingtonpost.com. (I hate it when journalists assume Roland Garros is his favorite tournament and court just because he wins there, like, a lot.)
- Article titles like this make me nervious: It’s inconceivable that Nadal won’t win French – by Simon Reed (eurosport.com)
- Nadal: You must learn to lose – via tennishead.net
- Electronic tennis racket makes world debut – Reuters via chicagotribune.com
Contests:
- If you live in Spain, you can enter a contest to win a Rafa customized KIA.
- Enter to win a trip to next year’s French Open – courtesy of The Tennis Channel.
Videos:
- Rafa’s first practice at Roland Garros.
- Roland Garros 2012 – Eurosport Promo
- Roland Garros 2012 – Preview Show
Photos:
- Smiley Rafa at today’s Babolat event.
- I adore this photo from the Babolat event. Laughing relaxed tennis players – and I like all of them!
- Hi Rafa abs.
- Fed himself got in on the day of Rafa sharing and posted a photo oh himself and Rafa at a NetJets event to Facebook.
- Once again @adel1609 is at a tournament and rocking some photos: Hello Rafa!, bye, Rafa. Check her twitter for more photos of other players.
- Taking a rest during his practice.
- Lovely photo from practice – more here. And, even more here.
Rafa does social media:
- Rafa shared a photo of himself and Toni checking out the new Babolat racquet.
Tweets about Rafa:
Is Andy planning his revenge?
Looking forward to asking rafa some questions tomorrow…. twitter.com/andy_murray/st…
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) May 24, 2012
Random:
- Want to watch this year’s Australian Open final again? The whole darn thing? Like…hours and hours of it? Open the vault.
Lastly, a few photos of Rafa on the grounds at Roland Garros today:
Photos by JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP/GettyImages
Okay, night guys! See you bright and early for the draw!
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Superb article by Tignor! I hope Borg would be in attendance at French Open 2012 this year. That would be historically significant..:o)
Hmm..I can’t seem to view the video on DAILY MOTION..must be a bug in my laptop or it’s not available for certain countries (Malaysia,etc)?
This looks the the RG men’s draw:
http://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/205964453165019136/photo/1/large
I really want to know Andy’s revenge; he’s been plotting for sometime..hehe.
Rafa’s pic with Li and Kim is tooo cute and adorkable :)
The draws on the Roland site. I don’t know how people can keep saying Rafa gets an easy draw at French open when last year he faced big server John Isner who took him to 5 sets.
This year he faces Raonic and Isner, two tall big servers.
Good luck Rafa. Can’t wait for French open to start
I meant ‘Roland Garros’ site
Rafa would only meet Raonic in the quarters, Isner in the semis. I’d be surprised if either of them get that far. I think it’ll be Ferrer in the semis and I think it will NOT be easy. I know Ferrer has never done that well at RG but I think this year will be different.
Otoh, Djoko probably gets either Berdy or Fed in the semis, speaking of Not Easy. :-)
Not to mention Dr Ivo. Also Denis Istomen has proved to be an awkward customer for Rafa. I remember thinking to myself on the morning of the draw that Rafa would probably draw Raonic or Isner. Not an easy draw at all, especially when the Babolat balls are supposed to favour big severs/hitters.
I love the friendship between Rafa and Federer, two extraodinary champions.
The pic with Rafa, Kim and Li Na is lovely.
Yes it’s great isn’t it? Rafa has an easier draw, makes a change! Expect a lot of Rafa bashing ahead. Nole’ draw isn’t to bad, Fed’s is tougher, if he s good enough he will come through it. Anything can happen, anyone can go out at anytime. I don’t see Murray going far as he is carrying some niggles and he has been disappointing in the clay season so it’s gonna take someone to play lights out gruelling tennis to beat Rafa. Hopefully he will make it #7.
Li na has a great sense of humour. In her interviews she can be hilarious even tho her English is not brilliant she does make me laugh. It’s a great picture of the three chilling, relaxing and laughing.
Loved the comment about picture #3 and the winner’s lounge! Let’s hope and pray he uses it again this year. Vamos!!!
Thanks so much for providing the link to the AO Vault. I’d love to watch that match again.
Feel the same about Simon Reed…his predictions usually = kiss of death :( The way everyone is talking about Roland Garros being a shoe-in for Rafa makes me very nervous!
Agree the pic of Li, Kim and Rafa is SO fun.
i don’t know why anyone would think rafa has an easy section of the draw. Djoker is the one wt the easy draw. If rafa meets raonic instead of Monaco, it could be tricky cos he’s had time to rest after his early exit from Rome, Tipsy or Almagro i hope will be too tired after being in Germany & Nice respectively this week. B4 then, there’re good players in rafa’s draw;Istomin,Karlovic/Mayer,they like to stretch matches even if they may not win.
Murray is always a tough customer if he is on his game, forget the back injury, i don’t really buy it.He’s been told to quit RG but he hasn’t, so the back is better.we should expect some sort of resistance there.
I am not saying these players will beat rafa but they could wear him out, remember it is a three or five sets in GS.
Good enof, Federer feels Rafa is the favourite, so he may help put away Djoker so rafa doesn’t have to exorcise the mental strength he will need to put him away. I feel he would put in much fight to get the Novak Slam.
I do enestly pray Rafa gets this RG slam.