Posted by vamosrafelnadal.

There’s also an article on the iB3 site (which will probably have the above video added to it later). (Google mangling).

Posted by vamosrafelnadal.

UEFA did not publish the reasons behind the decision, which Mallorca have appealed.

“I am like all Mallorca fans,” Nadal, who was born on the island, told IB3 TV.

“It’s a hell of a blow because playing in Europe fills you with excitement and the players have earned it,” the Wimbledon and French Open champion added.

“I don’t know the reasons behind the exclusion but if it is for economic reasons there would not be any European competition at all because everyone is in the same situation.”

Mallorca said in May they had applied to go into voluntary administration in an effort to sort out their finances.

Like many Spanish clubs, they have been slipping ever further into debt due to surging wage and transfer costs and a recent University of Barcelona study indicated they had debts of around 85 million euros ($110 million).

Via Forty Deuce – C Note has a press pass and is working it.

The video has interviews with Toni and Emilio Sanchez who appear to have taken part in some sort of “Tennis Congress” per this video and title.

And for those of us who are confused about the differences in hard courts, Mind the Racket tries to break things down for us. Problem is, there’s still confusing info out there.

(I wanted to port all the all posts over there, but I’m having trouble getting the template to deal with the bizarre image tags WordPress uses to allow for captions…I’m working on it. If I can’t figure it out, future posts will show up on tumblr until I get tired of having to edit the image caption tag.)

Photo by Beth Wilson

According to two items (one; two) sitting in my in-box when I woke up this morning, Rafa has once again added the Thailand Open to his schedule. He’s scheduled and had to pull out before due to injuries, so let’s hope the people of Thailand get to see Rafa in person this year.

“This year with my health and body in good shape, I am really looking forward to playing some great tennis for the Thai fans,” Nadal said in a statement issued by organizers of the Sept. 24-Oct. 3 indoor tournament at Bangkok’s Impact Arena.

Photo by Beth Wilson

Hey, it’s getting dusty out here on the wide wide web. Let’s clean a bit.

kefuoe let me know about a poll Tennis Magazine (French) is having for their year end issue. They have decided the cover story is Rafa, and you can help them decide which photo of him will grace the cover. Cast your vote.

Rafael Nadal, man or myth? (by Anna Nicholas) talks about how Rafa’s a true Mallorcan in his values and bearing.

This article pretends to be about the house Rafa’s having built on Ibiza but is really a real estate advert for near-by property. (The article might tell us bit too much about Rafa’s house for outsiders to know.) The author also seems to think that his choice of location is in contrast to the values mentioned in the previous article.

Proof that he can afford to build a house anywhere he wants can be found via Sports Illustrated’s: The 20 highest-earning International athletes. Rafa’s #9 on the list with an approximate $27,466,515 in income for the last year.

Nadal set to finally flourish at Flushing by Tom Perrotta has me doing my anti-jinxing dance again:

First things first: Rafael Nadal can win in Flushing, N.Y., and this is his best chance to capture the U.S. Open. He was playing well enough to take the title in 2008, but the added burden of the Olympics (he won the gold medal in Beijing) wore him down. I don’t put too much stock in the other barriers often discussed: The courts are too fast for him and the surface is too hard on his body. Nonsense, I say — he can win on anything. Nadal hasn’t won the U.S. Open because of its place at the end of the tennis calendar. This year, he should be in good health, as he won’t have to worry about the Olympics, and he has a better understanding of his knee tendinitis and how to treat it. He’ll also have weaker competition: Juan Martin del Potro, the defending champion, isn’t going to play and Roger Federer hasn’t played well since the Australian Open (though I wouldn’t count him out, either). If Nadal is healthy when he arrives in Flushing, he’ll be the favorite.

Tignor checks in with an article previewing the upcoming hard court season:

Traditionally, Nadal has started to wear down after Wimbledon, but he’s held it together in Canada, where he’s won twice. This time he comes in with the experience of having been No. 1 in 2008, and having been in total control of both the French and Wimbledon finals this year, against guys who have troubled him in the past. He’s had his knees worked over—what do these platelet injections do for him?; it reminds me of a treatment that was supposed to cure tennis elbow once upon a time—and he’s had plenty of time to rest. So far this year Nadal has done what he’s usually done; now he’ll have to break new ground. Now we’ll begin to get a clue as to how good he might be for the next few years. Will he be a 12-month No. 1, a guy who wins everywhere, the way Federer has? Or will he always have his peaks and valleys? Hard courts are still not his favorite surface; he moves more naturally on the soft stuff. So it will be an effort. But it will also be the best chance he’s had to show off his best on this continent.

I think that’s what people were saying last year…before Rafa broke his abdominal.

In his latest Mailbag article, Jon Wertheim ponders whether the God question was out of bounds or not:

I was surprised at how many of you took issue with that question from the Nadal Q&A. For the record, I WAS NOT the reporter who asked it, but I thought that it was fair. The reporter had a right to ask; Nadal had a right to decline. (Like many of you, I thought his answer was quite revealing.) I think there’s an interesting risk-reward ratio in these interviews. The safe questions — “How does it feel?” … “Did you ever imagine this?” … “How do you assess your performance?” — tend to yield the safe answers. The more obscure questions either yield the “no comments” (or worse), or trigger some of the most insightful responses.

And since when do any of us “stick to the tennis”? Part of the appeal of tennis specifically and sports more generally lies in the depth and dimension and personalities of the athletes. Their images are about so much more than forehand and backhands (or excellence while on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers or Real Madrid or the back nine at Augusta). Rafael Nadal makes millions in endorsements, yes, because he wins tennis matches but also because of his narrative. Again, he is well within his rights to decline to talk about his faith. But I think it’s a fair line of inquiry.

On the subject of religion, I once asked Uncle Toni about what role of faith plays in life. His response: “I don’t believe. I studied history in university. Religion comes from ignorance in people. Tribal societies, when they see a flash of lightning or something unusual, they say it come from the Magician. But when society move forward, and technology discover more, religion goes in the back. For me, is very important to be moral — to be good person. But not religion.”

According to his official site, Rafa’s “back to work to prepare the most difficult part of the season yet.” You’d think he’d prepare a less difficult season if the prep were up to him. Oh, guess they mean “prepare for.” The rest of the article makes me wonder if they are writing the English side via google translations. Thank goodness I only have to do this site in one language. Regardless, let’s hope he manages to recover his knees so he can prepare the difficulty ahead.