AO: Challenged

In his quarterfinal match at the 2012 Australian Open, Rafa played Tomas Berdych. It was a tight first set with Berdych holding serve much easier than Rafa. At 5-6, Rafa had to fight off 4 set points to force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker a very bad call (and a failure to timely challenge it), gave Berdych a set point and he took it: 6-7(7). Rafa broke in the 4th game of the second set and followed that up with an emphatic

24 Jan 2012 | by miri | 58 Comments

DC: Happy dancing Spaniards, take two

Davis Cup finals – 2011

In the midst of the wonderful afterglow I had from attending the Davis Cup quarterfinals, I started thinking about going to the semis in Cordoba. That didn’t work out and I was sad. The results of the semis, however made me happy because they meant the final would be played in Spain and would be Spain vs. Argentina – teams with players on my “like to watch” checklist. Needless to say, I immediately started looking at budget and vacation time for work. After much conspiring with fellow RafaFans, plans were made, flights were booked, an apartment

7 Dec 2011 | by miri | 71 Comments

RafaLint: October 13th

Articles:

Presser transcript
Mayer Tops Nadal In Third Round; Finals Contender Berdych Falls via ATP
Florian Mayer upsets Rafael Nadal via espn.com
Raquet Reaction: Nadal vs. Mayer by Ed McGrogan. WARNING: Annoying auto-load of video.
Oh, google mangle, sometimes you speak the truth: “Nadal upset was baked out“.
Toni says a lot of the same things Rafa fans have been saying, but I bet some will be pissed off by his comments. ;) (Mangle)
I love the paragraph in this article

13 Oct 2011 | by miri | 13 Comments

USO: Two days, Two Andys

As fans were still in recovery mode after the tension-filled first men’s semi-final, Rafa took the court to play #4 Andy Murray to attempt to earn a place in the final. Both showed they were ready to run for everything right from the first few points and fans settled in for what could be a very long match. I don’t know if it’s because the first semi was so tense or because Andy’s energy seemed low, but the start

10 Sep 2011 | by miri | 87 Comments

RAFA Reviewed

Rafa has always appeared to be a man of contrasts – the fierce on-court warrior, the guy who’s afraid of…many things; the sex symbol, the dork; the warm charming guy who can draw you in with a smile, the man who only lets you in so far and keeps things close to the vest. As Carlos Moyá says, “The secret of the tremendous appeal he has worldwide is that you can see he is as passionate as McEnroe was, but he has the self-control of Borg, the cold-blooded killer. To be both in one is a contradiction, and that’s

14 Aug 2011 | by miri | 61 Comments

Anyone for tension?

A bizarre and tension-filled interview in The Times (subscription only) sent in by Emma (thanks). I think when it starts with the interviewer upset that she can see Rafa’s undies (guess she doesn’t cover sports much if men in their undies is upsetting to her) and then asking about him tugging his undies, it’s not going to be a good interview…

 
Anyone for tension?

He’s the tennis superstar who has netted a fortune, has hordes of admirers and is happy with

5 Jun 2011 | by miri | 202 Comments

RG: Telegraph blog & Q&A #12

Rafa’s pre-final blog and Q&A for The Telegraph is up!

Hello everyone, and good morning.

It’s rainy today in Paris but we are finally in the last day. It’s been an amazing two weeks where there were points that I thought I would not make it to the final day. I wasn’t playing well and, as I said, I had to play better to be able to reach the final. This says a lot about the importance of confidence in tennis. It is possible to

5 Jun 2011 | by miri | 4 Comments

Rome: Post final presser

Thanks to @agimanocska for sending me a link to Rafa’s presser transcript: here. I’m not sure if it’s a translation or what, because there’s some oddities.

Q: Rafa — did you expect him — and to having such a long and hard match against Murray last night — did you expect it to come out and play as if it never happens.

Nadal: He is a very good player and very own performance physically and mentally. This level of performance is

15 May 2011 | by miri | 44 Comments

Madrid: A small dent in the crown

It was final day in Madrid and everyone was asking the question: which streak will end? Nole’s 33 match winning streak? Rafa’s 37 match clay winning streak? It’s often said that players on a winning streak have forgotten how to lose. Who would get a reminder today? Add to the mix that Nole’s beaten Rafa in the last two finals they’ve met in and that Rafa’s never lost to Nole on clay and the number of possible sea-changes (big and small) that could

8 May 2011 | by miri | 217 Comments

Madrid: 16-8

Rafa/Roger, Federer/Nadal – I don’t need to write anything more than that as an intro except to add: Madrid Open, Semifinal, existing head-to-head – 15-8. The match started with Rafa breaking Fed in the first game. Was this going to be a repeat of Miami? No. Fed stepped things up big time at the end of the set and took it 7-5. The second set started the same but Rafa held on to the momentum and took it 6-1. While I

7 May 2011 | by miri | 56 Comments