RafaLint: November 17th

Photo by Beth Wilson

Lovely quotes from Daveeed in this article: The 5th Man’s Finest Season May Yet Get Finer.

“Not to say that I’m close to lots of stars and famous people, but Rafa is the most down-to-earth and humble star that I know,” Ferrer said. “Irrespective of how good a tennis player he is, I think he’s a better person than a tennis player. And I think we’re all lucky to have someone like Rafa, more because of the kind of person he is than

17 Nov 2012 | by miri | 7 Comments

Davis Cup: Spain 2, Czech Republic 3

The Davis Cup final between Spain and the Czech Republic was a tightly contested affair. It went to the final match with the Czech Republic winning their first Davis Cup as an independent nation.

17 Nov 2012 | by miri | 4 Comments

RafaLint: October 4th

I wanna go! (I have no money to go – sigh.) I’ve always wanted to see Prague…

Funny to think that the first DC tie I attended was Spain vs. The Czech Republic. Oh well, if I went, I’d probably end up on the wrong bus and get death scares again.

Articles:

Rafa will be on “El Hormiguero” October 11th (translation)

Videos/Audio:

Interview with Toni
Complete audio and some video from Toni’s conference
I have no idea wtf this is about, but it’s got Rafa in just a towel, so I had to

4 Oct 2012 | by miri | 5 Comments

DC Semifinal: Spain 3, USA 1

Photo by Paul Zimmer

Although neither match was 100% straight forward (Ferrer dropped one set; Almagro was pushed the limit in five), Spain got off to a great start on Friday as both David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro won their matches. The doubles match was exciting and tightly contested. Marc! Lopez came into the tie with a calf injury and Granollers suffered one during the match – leading them sporting matching calf wraps. With Granollers movement hampered, Marc! stepped things up and played wonderful doubles tennis until the

15 Sep 2012 | by miri | 9 Comments

RafaLint: April 10th

A Davis Cup book, flashback videos, Miami photos from Nida, and…Capybaras? Time for some RafaLint.

10 Apr 2012 | by miri | 8 Comments

DC: Spain 4; Austria 1

And they did it! Daveeeed stomped all over Melzer to seal the deal. Since the USA defeated France today, the Spain/USA semifinal will be played in Spain, September 14th-16th.

6 Apr 2012 | by miri | 13 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: March 27th

Articles:

Racquet Reaction: Nadal d. Nishikori – by Hannah Wilks (tennis.com)
Rafa Nadal: “Llegaré hasta donde la rodilla pueda” – EFE via as.com (mangle)
Nadal no jugará ante Austria en la Copa Davis – by Joan Solsona (marca.com). Here’s the mangle – which kind of leaves an important word out of the title, no?.
Nadal to miss Davis Cup quarter-final – via ESPN STAR
Away from tennis court, Rafael Nadal seeks

27 Mar 2012 | by miri | 8 Comments

RafaLint: February 14th

Today’s recommended reading:
Fan Club: Rafael Nadal – by Steve Tignor and Katrina. Katrina’s reasons for liking Rafa are very similar to mine…including her first reaction to him. :)

I remember one press conference in particular, after he lost early at Key Biscayne in 2006. Rafa said at some point that he was “going to use all six of his senses” to get better. He was informed by his publicist, Benito, that there are only five senses. Rafa didn’t blink. “I’ll have to find one more,” he said (or something to that effect). He did it with such a comically serious

14 Feb 2012 | by miri | 19 Comments

DC: Spain sweeps Kazakhstan 5-0

Who says you need 3 days to play a Davis Cup tie? The Armada don’t need no three days. Nope. Take away Rafa, Daveeed, Feli, and Nando and they still don’t need 3 days. How awesome is that? True, they were playing a young team who are fairly new to the World Group, but it’s still a very, very good new. They are through to the next round where they will play Austria tie in Spain on April 6th – 8th.

And I admit it…I squeeed a bit when Marc! took to the court in his first DC match and then

12 Feb 2012 | by miri | 16 Comments