RafaLint: July 21st
Photo by Beth Wilson
The winners of the Ace Rafa game from Bacardi were in Manacor today enjoying some time with Rafa and Carlos Moya. I hope they had a grand time! They’ve posted some photos from the event on the Champions Drink Responsibly Facebook page.
Articles:
- A Day In The Life – by Jesse Pentecost
Videos/Audio:
- English interview about the Olympics withdrawal – seems to be the source of the quotes in that Yahoo Sports article linked to earlier.
- iB3 report on Rafa’s withdrawal and first practice session. Per Inés, the man from the Manacor tennis center says that Rafa tried to play and after five minutes he stopped; he was totally devastated.
- Antenna 3 report – if I’m understanding things correctly, this includes footage from the fateful practice sesion. Can someone who understands confirm or correct that assumption?
- Audio interview with Toni
- RVTE report
- TDP interview with Toni
- iB3 interview with Toni.
Photos:
Rafa does social media:
- Rafa is happy for Pau Gasol, who will take his place as flag bearer for Spain in the Olympics.
Tweets about Rafa:
Rafa arrives for the ACE Rafa event:
Rafa #Nadal, il nostro Social Responsibility Ambassador, è arrivato e tra poco incontrerà i finalisti di #AceRafa! twitter.com/Bacardi_tweets…
— Bacardi tweets (@Bacardi_tweets) July 21, 2012
Ecco la nostra Laura con Rafa #Nadal. RT se la state invidiando! ;) #AceRafa #Bacardi twitter.com/Bacardi_tweets…
— Bacardi tweets (@Bacardi_tweets) July 21, 2012
Rafa and Carlos – always a nice sight.
Foto de hoy con un grande q pronto volvera a estar a tope… twitter.com/Charlymoya/sta…
— Carlos Moya (@Charlymoya) July 21, 2012
Photo from today’s interview:
@RafaelNadal nos atendió en Manacor para hablar de su estado de ánimo tras renunciar a los Juegos de #londres2012 twitter.com/mateuramonell/…
— Mateu Ramonell(@mateuramonell) July 21, 2012
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Thank you Miri for photos from ACE RAFA event.
I wonder if Rafa was able to play tennis with the kids? If so, it’s great that Rafa’s able to play a little tennis, despite the knee injury. Of course, playing tennis with kids is much less demanding than ATP competition, and Rafa still needs more recovery time for his knees. But at least it’s a good sign, if Rafa was able to play some tennis, even if he was playing with kids.
Playing with contest winners has nothing to do with being able to play professional level tennis. (Unless those contest winners were in the ATP top 20.)
Miri- I’m aware of that. In my previous post, I did say: “playing tennis with kids is much less demanding than ATP competition, and Rafa still needs more recovery time for his knees.”- did you read that part?
I simply asked if Rafa was able to play tennis with the kids? I simply think it would’ve been great if he was able to do that.
I’m still wondering what kids you are referring to…
ok- sorry of I was confusing. Let me rephrase my original post:
I wonder if Rafa was able to play tennis with the contest winners? If so, it’s great that Rafa’s able to play a little tennis, despite the knee injury.
Of course, playing tennis with contest winners is much less demanding than ATP competition, and Rafa still needs more recovery time for his knees.
Yes. I got that. I don’t understand what it has to do with being a good sign. It’s not like Rafa’s been ordered to bed rest. His been told not to play competitive tennis – not to play or prepare for it. By your logic, the fact that he’s able to walk is a good sign.
Well, Rafa had a foot injury in 2005 & 2006, in which he could barely walk, remember?
While this knee injury is serious, it’s good for Rafa that at least he’s capable of some physical activity- he’s just not able to play competitive tennis yet.
Rafa was not playing at all, he didnt touch a racket, that why Carlos was there
Thanks Ines. I suspected that’s why Carlos Moya was there.
Btw, here is a pic with Carlos in the bottom playing
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7443/7947536385363681.jpg
Wow. I just read the Pentecost piece and am stunned to hear about these conspiracy theories about Rafa and his injuries. The 1st comment under the article is just bizarre. I guess I have had my head under a rock (and I’m glad of it!) because I wasn’t aware that some people had so little to do that they come up with this nonsense.
Pentecost closes with “All told, countless thousands have no trouble imagining how gutted Nadal must feel. They feel it, too. Even for those who don’t there must surely be some concession that his absence is blow to the Olympic event.”
True, that. Just as Wimby wasn’t the same, neither will the Olympics be.
I’m glad to see Rafa with Carlos Moya-calming, steady influence it seems-I know there have been thoughts/statements about Rafa NOT going attending the Olympics–is it possible he will go to cheer his country on ? Does anyone have the latest on this ? He is SUCH a great cheerleader and loves the team aspect of this which is another reason it is just so hard—I am so happy he was able to help his country win the World cup in December…SOOO happy….
In an audio interview, Bodo pointed out that Rafa was in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation – If he stayed in the games knowing he had an injury, and then lost early or had to withdraw because of his knees, his critics would say that he needlessly took a space on the team just for the glory;if he dropped out, critics would say that he was copping out because he didn’t want to compete if he couldn’t win. A no win situation for him.
Man, he looks depressed. I’ve never seen him so flat, so un-animated. *sniff*
I don’t think he will go to the olympics as he said he would not in his withdrawal statement. It would be a bit depressing for him when he cannot play so that is understandable.
Rafa seems to attract all sorts of odd conspiracy theories from hostile people on the Internets and some Journos too. But remember Obama is a reptile from outa space just like Romney; and they all meet in the mount Pelerin society to get their orders from planet Xenon about how to destroy the human race. And it must be true as some Mr Anonymous on the interweb said so.
Thanks for the links. Heartbreaking to think of that 5 minute practice session and him having to take that awful decision, though as he says, it must have been on the cards for a while.
Terrible luck for Rafa but I’m sure that when he looks back at this season and this year he’ll eventually be grateful that he was able to get through the pain and get that 7th RG at least – despite all his issues he’s managed to win a lot and it would have been far more devastating if the knees had worsened more than they did during the clay season.
I’m not sure if he’s just saying he’ll try and be in 2016 to make himself feel better (he looks so sad in the interview :( ) but even he is that’s not a bad thing – there’s always hope and you never know how things will turn out…
Yes Miri, the part of the video of Antena3 includes footage from the fateful practice session. Even if you pay attention, the shoes are the shoes with the colors of the Spanish flag
Thanks – and it was the shoes that had me convinced enough to mention it. :)
So there is no chance to play in TORONTO?
No – not by all these accounts. And it seems that Cincy’s an outside chance at best.
I think it’s likely he’ll play Cincy purely because he’ll need some US Open tune-up. Even if he loses early, some competitive match play will be good before the Open. Missing the Open would be a HUGE decision – especially given the points he’s defending. That doesn’t look to be on the cards yet thankfully.
If he starts practicing after the 15 days rest reported, he should have a week before Cincy – where he doesn’t play till Tuesday anyway so fingers crossed for a return then.
Actually, Rafa’s 1st match in Masters tournaments are usually on Wednesday. Uncle Toni said Rafa hopes to play Cincy, though no decision has been made yet of course.
I think the good news is that he really only needs to play Cincy and the USO. Cincy will be harder because of no off day between matches. At the USO he can manage his way through because there aren’t back to backs. After that aside from defending finals points in Tokyo, there is nothing else he really needs to play. This would mean nearly a full 3 months to recover and only having to play one tournament. I could see Rafa skipping the tour finals this year or just making a token appearance since there are hardly any points to defend there either. In the past, Uncle Toni has said that it is possible Rafa would play less as he got older and just focus on clay and the majors. I hope this doesn’t come true but I don’t think it would be such a bad thing. It is telling that Rafa’s most successful season on the tour in 2010 was when he didn’t play back to back weeks the entire year outside of the majors. Seems like rest and recovery will get him back to 100%.
Oh dear, what Rafa is going through seems really bad. I had thought he was told he can’t do competitive tennis but to be even unable to hit some balls with non-professionals such as the winners, things could be worse, no? And it must be really devastating to be unable to play for more than 5 minutes. I’m sure lots of people are sending him positive vibes and I hope he’s getting those vibes. He didn’t seem truly happy at the Ace Rafa event; everything seemed quite forced. Hope this doesn’t get him too down. Its so heartbreaking! I actually don’t care if he’ll be able to go for the pre-USO tournaments. I only wish for Rafa to get better!
I believe this is a time, where all the Rafa fans across the world hold their breaths..
It is clear to see, what an impact this has on Rafa, how devastated it must be for him after a few minutes of practise.
It is confusing times at the moment, as so many different statements flourish around the web.
What to think, what to believe is kind of a puzzle.
I for one am so relieved of having this site, for all the work that Miri puts into giving us so useful information, not to mention the comments from a lot of you about the current situation.
So thank you all for this, as it gives me somewhat comfort at least to share the most difficult times for Rafa and all of us.
I tend to extreme thinking which isn’t always good but I wonder if he should just scrap the rest of the year. Cincy and USO are the worst possible surface for his knees. Nah, he’d get too bored. And it would wreck his ranking. It all depends on what his knees are saying, no?
The conspiracy theorists are so off-base. If Rafa was healthy he’d be out there competing with his usual fight. But playing in pain takes the fight out of him.
Interesting to see Rafa’s English interview. I hope he gets over the disappointment.
I hope so too.
The first time I learned how to pronounce the name Mallorca was when I chose to take Spanish in college for my prerequesiste for AAS degree in Paralegal.
I recently watched a television presentation on public television station called The13 Wonders of Spain. The only one I got to see was on 2 cathedrals from the 12th century (1512) Gothic Reneissance period, 54 panels in 5 rows of art nuveau…Chapel of St Martin…the House of Shells built one year after Columbus went to America…Casa de la Scones…University of Salamanca [construction completed in 1533 (?)]…Spanish Baraque period…described as strong and robust style…church & convent…the 4 wings of the Palace of Monterey where the border along the top is various statues that are very ornate. IT IS SOMETHING I WANT TO SEE FOR REAL MYSELF…UP CLOSE…and IN PERSON