Madrid: 2nd round videos

Videos from today’s match against Davydenko.

9 May 2012 | by miri | 4 Comments

Madrid: 2nd round photos

Photos from today’s win over Davydenko.

Photos by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images, DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/GettyImages, REUTERS/Andrea Comas, DANI POZO/AFP/GettyImages, Jasper Juinen/Getty Images, Mike Hewitt/Getty Images, and AP Photo/

9 May 2012 | by miri | 7 Comments

Madrid: Davydenko gets his wish

Rafa started his battle with blue by taking on #54 Nikolay Davydenko today in Madrid. Davydenko is one of the few active players on the tour to have lead his head to head against Rafa, but he’s not quite the player he was a few years ago. In his presser after his first round match, Davydenko said he hoped Rafa would finish him off quickly. Being the ever accommodating gent that he is, Rafa granted that wish by breaking early and often. Couple that with excellent serving and aggressive play and this was a quick kill. Rafa’s through 6-2, 6-2.

9 May 2012 | by miri | 28 Comments

RafaLint: May 8th

More kvetching about blue clay, practice photos and some Roland Garros speculation – today’s lint!

8 May 2012 | by miri | 9 Comments

Tuesday in Madrid

I actually made it to the tournament in time to see Rafa practice today. Yea! I watched him for about an hour and 45 minutes with fully charged batteries in my camera. Again, yea! You can see some of the best pictures here. Here’s one:

I love Rafa in this red. I hope it is the French Open Red. I forgot to mention another minus for this tournament is no Nike shop. I was hoping to pick up

8 May 2012 | by DebLDecker | 9 Comments

Monday in Madrid

So the good news is I found out how to get information on the practice schedule. A guy sitting next to me at David Ferrer’s practice handed me a print out that you can get at the information desk. The bad news is that it said that Rafa had already practiced from 10-12. Rats, I was sure he wouldn’t practice before his event for AlmaNadal. But what do I know? So I didn’t get to see Rafa at all today, but I guess a few of you did on TV.

Well, I can share about David’s practice. He was hitting with

8 May 2012 | by DebLDecker | 15 Comments

RafaLint: May 7th

Oooodles of ALMA NADAL coverage and….and…well, that’s enough, right?

7 May 2012 | by miri | 4 Comments

First Weekend in Madrid

Rafa Siting

If Madrid has a board posting practice schedules, I haven’t found it. So I missed Rafa’s practice on Saturday even though it was on the main stadium. Must have been early before the first match started at 1. I got lucky on Sunday and only knew he was around due to the huge and noisy crowd that was gathering on the platform overlooking the outside courts. I was sitting on the opposite side of court 7 waiting for the next match to begin when the mass appeared.

The main access to courts 4, 5, 6, and 7 and the

7 May 2012 | by DebLDecker | 10 Comments

RafaLint: May 6th

Short presser clips, more tournament previews, everyone thinks Rafa’s adorable, and – hi moms!

6 May 2012 | by miri | 9 Comments

RafaLint: May 5th

Rafa goes to a concert, practices with Verdasco and a Rafa-themed room – today’s lint.

5 May 2012 | by miri | 9 Comments