RafaLint: December 29th

Photo by Beth Wilson

Injury and Illness to Keep Nadal Out of Australian Open – by Christopher Clarey (nytimes.com). This is the best article I could find on the withdrawal. It has actual research in it!

Nadal’s publicist, Benito Pérez Barbadillo, said in a telephone interview that Nadal began to feel ill Dec. 20 in his home island of Majorca in Spain. At that stage, Pérez Barbadillo said, Nadal had been practicing with increased intensity, but his illness forced him to stop training and doctors

29 Dec 2012 | by miri | One Comment

Rafa withdraws from Doha and the Australian Open

This morning, Rafa announced his withdrawal from Doha and the Australian Open via Facebook. He currently plans to return to the tour in Acapulco.

28 Dec 2012 | by miri | 33 Comments

RafaLint: November 8th

Photo by Beth Wilson
Articles:

Fans select top four for AO cover – good job, RafaFans.
Federer spares a thought for absent Nadal – by Martyn Herman (Reuters)
Federer-Rafa still the best rivalry – by Ravi Ubha (ESPN)

Videos/Audio:

k alerted me to a YouTube video of the complete Rafa/Verdasco 2009 Australian Open semifinal. Awesome. Check out the user’s channel for more Rafa matches.

Photos:

Behind the Scenes photos from a Champions Drink Responsibly event.

Rafa does social media:
Rafa had a very tweety day today, check out his

8 Nov 2012 | by miri | 8 Comments

RafaLint: October 3rd

The Champions Drink Responsibly campaign has posted a video retrospective of their promos with Rafa – enjoy!

Articles:

Toni Nadal: “Hay una pequeña posibilidad de que Rafa juegue el Masters” – genny_ss has posted a translation on Facebook.
Tony nadal: “muchos dt son demasiado serviles con los tenistas” – and another translation on Facebook via genny_ss.
Toni Nadal vaguely opens door for Rafa to play again in 2012 – by Courtney Nguyen (si.com)
Can Rafa be Rafa again? – by Steve Tignor

Videos/Audio:

Interview with Toni
Video from Toni’s conference
Ready to play? –

3 Oct 2012 | by miri | No Comment

RafaLint: October 2nd

Let the Australian Open hype begin!

2 Oct 2012 | by miri | One Comment

RafaLint: June 19th

Wimbledon on the move? Flashback time and…that’s a lot of cousins. Today’s lint.

19 Jun 2012 | by miri | 6 Comments

RafaLint: April 1st

No April Fool’s joke from me…just a wee bit of lint. But the ATP did play a joke…and I have no idea how Andy and Tipsy kept a straight face during it.

Articles:

Nadal visitará al doctor Mikel Sánchez en Vitoria – via diariodemallorca.es – thanks, genny_ss. From the mangle, it seems that Rafa’s been playing with sore knees for 9 months. (Oops. It’s been pointed out to me in the comments that the 9 months quote was related to the 2009 Wimbledon

2 Apr 2012 | by miri | 20 Comments

RafaLint: February 6th

Articles:

Mónaco, el campeón de V. del Mar y su eterna amistad con Nadal by Felipe Lagos (emol.com). Rafa/Pico bromance! Here’s the mangle. (Thanks for tweeting genny_ss.
Toni Nadal: «Rafael tiene otra actitud después de Australia» – by Enrique Yunta (abc.es). A positive sounding interview with Toni. Here’s the mangle. (Thanks for tweeting @RafaelNadalFC.)
No Day Off for Men in 2012 U.S. Open Final – by Christopher Clarey

Rafa does social media:

Rafa let us know he was fighting off the cold

6 Feb 2012 | by miri | 35 Comments

RafaLint: February 4th

Thanks to some prodding, I finally got around to making a DC version of the calendar. Just note, the DC pictures will be grainier than the rest because it was indoors. You can buy it on QOOP.

Articles:

Length of Aussie final didn’t add up – by Kamakshi Tandon (espn.com)
Analyzing Time of Match Between Djokovic-Nadal – by by Matthew Laird (tennisgrandstand.com)
Glory in golden era of men’s tennis – by Chip Le Grand (The Australian)

Extreme sporting efforts

4 Feb 2012 | by miri | 8 Comments

RafaLint: February 1st

Rafa sent us some videos taken at the eyeport (heh). In English:

And in Spanish:

Here’s what he had to say about these videos on Facebook:

I owed you a message and here it is, I recorded it at Melbourne’s airport :) Thanks to all for your support!

Sé que os debía un mensaje y aquí lo tenéis, lo grabé en el aeropuerto de Melbourne :) Gracias a todos por vuestro apoyo!

Rafa, you didn’t owe us a thing – you gave us your all for 6 hours last Sunday. (That

1 Feb 2012 | by miri | 24 Comments