Is it Halle for Rafa in 2012?

According to this article, Rafa has been lured away from Queens thanks to the offer of some serious moolah from Halle.

Gerry Weber’s cash has lured Rafael Nadal away from his traditional Wimbledon warm-up at Queen’s Club next year.

Sportsmail understands that Nadal has accepted around £750,000 to play in the Gerry Weber Open at Halle, missing the AEGON Championships, staged immediately after the French Open.

Chris Kermode, tournament director of the London event, admitted: ‘Rafa will not be with us

11 Oct 2011 | by miri | 52 Comments

RafaLint: June 13th

Rafa, choosing to baffle us at all times, is practicing on clay. (I get there are no grass courts in Mallorca, but he said he’d only do physical work and practice serves. Maybe I’m stupid – well, on this matter in addition to many others that are a given – but I don’t understand moving on clay when grass is right around the corner. Then again, it doesn’t look like he’s moving much. So, I dunno. I give up trying to second guess how to be a #1 ranked player.) Oh, and he’s held the #1 position for 100 weeks.

13 Jun 2011 | by miri | 33 Comments

RafaLint: June 12th

Queen’s stuff:

Nadal stumbles out of Queen’s – by Steve Griffiths

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overpowers Rafael Nadal at Queen’s – via BBC

Tsonga sends ‘tired’ Nadal crashing out of Queen’s Club – via CNN

Rafael Nadal’s launchpad to Wimbledon at Queen’s Club – by Marianne Bevis

Misc:

French Open Retrospective – by Steve Flink

Ljubicic on Nadal, etc. – by Stephanie Myles

Live for the Game – the new clothing line posted about a while ago is available on the UK Nike

12 Jun 2011 | by miri | 10 Comments

Humble yes; silly no

Inés sent me a link to an interview with Rafa in EL PAÍS as well as the following translation. Do not reproduce the translation without her permission.

Be humble, yes, silly, no – an interview with Rafael Nadal by Juan José Mateo with translation by Inés

He says he has added his tenth Grand Slam title because he brings together the indispensable mixture of obstinacy and self-sacrifice. The formula seems simple, but with 25 years, very few can apply it to overcome the crisis of

12 Jun 2011 | by miri | 29 Comments

Queens: Post quarterfinal presser

Rafa’s post quarterfinal presser has been posted by the helpful people at ASAP Sports.

Q. What are your thoughts on that?

RAFAEL NADAL: My thoughts was I didn’t play bad at the beginning, no? He was serving really well. Second set I had my chances, in my opinion.

Probably after losing second set mentally I lost my concentration. First game mentally a little bit tired. A lot of matches in a row.

And after that, you know, with the break in the third

11 Jun 2011 | by miri | 8 Comments

Queens: Random vids

Couldn’t find a lot match-wise, so this is a bit random….

Set 1 highlights (aka: ace, ace, ace):

Posted by NadalCuriosities..

Practicing:

“Rafa Watching Bellucci/Sa Who Had Pinched His Practice Court”:

Both posted by raficionada.

11 Jun 2011 | by miri | 5 Comments

A Day at the Queens Club

From a very pink faced (wind and sun burnt!) rafandready…my report of yesterday. Be warned…it is long!

I left home at 7.15 am and was so concerned about how cold it had been at Queens and making sure that I had enough warm stuff with me that I completely forgot all those other essentials – sunglasses, sunhat and suntan lotion, so had to make a rapid purchase at Victoria station. I met my friends at Barons Court tube station

11 Jun 2011 | by rafandready | 26 Comments

Queens: Quarterfinal photos

Photos from today’s loss to Tsonga.

Photos by Michael Regan/Getty Images, Julian Finney/Getty Images, Clive Brunskill/Getty Images, BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images, and REUTERS/Toby Melville

10 Jun 2011 | by miri | 13 Comments

Queens: TsoLonga

After yet another rain delay (including one during the match), Rafa played big-smiling and big-serving #19 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals at Queen’s Club today. Tsonga’s serve and big game were too much for Rafa’s uneven play. Rafa’s out of the Queens singles: 7-6(3), 4-6, 1-6. (I apologize for the title of this post. What can I say…I just had to do it.)

10 Jun 2011 | by miri | 72 Comments

RafaLint: June 9th

Truncated lint because I got started so late and am dead tired. Speaking of starting late, Rafa’s on the OOP for 1 singles match, the continuation of his 2nd round doubles match and, if he and Marc! stage a comeback and win, a second doubles match…and he doesn’t start until the 3rd match on center court. Wonder what the weather forecast is like…

Some Rafa practice videos can be found here.

Rafael Nadal: The Best Ever? – by Nick Bollettieri

We are 7

10 Jun 2011 | by miri | 6 Comments