Barcelona: Neither rain, nor cold, nor Nico…

Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images

…could keep Rafa from winning his 8th Barcelona title.

Rafa played fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in the Barcelona final today. I missed the first three games, but based on twitter, Almagro came out firing winners and was soon up a double break. When I got home, they appeared to be sitting out a bit of rain. Did this slight delay give Almagro too much time to think about that 3-0 lead? Or was Rafa just waiting until I got home

28 Apr 2013 | by miri | 65 Comments

Barcelona: Into the final

Photo by AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

In a rain delayed semifinal, Rafa played #13 Milos Raonic today in Barcelona. I missed the start of the match, but it seems like Rafa started a bit slow as Raonic broke him right away and went up 2-0. Raonic probably wishes he could have frozen the match in time at that point, because it was downhill for him on the scoreboard from then on out. By the time I was able to watch, Rafa was moving him around the court and passing him at will. Not that Raonic was playing poorly, it’s just that Rafa was being Rafa on clay. Rafa’s through to the final 6-4, where he will play Nicolas Almagro. With this win, Rafa ties Borg for number of career match wins – they both have 608.

27 Apr 2013 | by miri | 46 Comments

Barcelona: Double header

Photo by Beth Wilson

To make up for yesterday’s non-stop rain, Rafa had to play two matches today in Barcelona. He started his day with a defeat of #33 Benoit Paire 7-6(2), 6-2. Rafa folloed that up with a drubbing of #64 Albert Ramos. Nice scores, but Rafa still needs to steady his backhand – it went from brilliant to “oh my” bad in a nano-second.

26 Apr 2013 | by miri | 43 Comments

Barcelona: Business as usual

Photo by Beth Wilson

Rafa started is Barcelona campaign with a solid 6-4, 6-2 2nd round win over Carlos Berlocq. I’m back to the boring real job and didn’t get to see the match – did anyone get to see it? Comments on the level of play?

24 Apr 2013 | by miri | 31 Comments

MC: That’s the sport

Photo by Beth Wilson

Let’s just start with the facts: Rafa Nadal is, for the first time since 2005, not the champion of the Monte-Carlo Masters. He lost today to Novak Djokovic 6-2, 7-6(1). Now the emotions: I left the court very sad; I left Rafa’s presser reassured. As usual, his perspective helped restore mine. He’s happy to have made the finals after his time away. He was happy that he fought and played his best match of the tournament. As he said, he prefers

21 Apr 2013 | by miri | 152 Comments

MC: Into another final

Photo by Beth Wilson

Rafa played Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first men’s Monte-Carlo semifinal today. It was a day that was supposed to be filled with rain. Instead, the constantly changing conditions – sunny and warm one minute; blustery cool and humid the next – just produced a threat of rain and a big challenge for the players. We know how much Rafa likes a challenge, right? The match looked like it was going to be a total blow out until, like the weather, Rafa cooled

20 Apr 2013 | by miri | 49 Comments

MC: Well, that was pretty scary

Photo by Beth Wilson

In the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals, Rafa played error-filled tennis against an in form Dimitrov and still managed to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. I’m not sure how he managed to, but he did. (His back had some tape on it too – not sure what that’s about. Basically, I’m not sure of a lot of things right now…like how I managed to not get kicked out of the photographer area for yelling, “Over the net and inside the lines!”)

(To clear things up, I wasn’t

19 Apr 2013 | by miri | 41 Comments

MC: Two down, three to go

Photo by Beth Wilson

Rafa handily defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-4 in the third round of the 2013 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. And that’s about all I’m going to write because it’s 11:30pm, I’ve had free French wine, and I still need to work on my photos.

18 Apr 2013 | by miri | 6 Comments

IW: The present

Photo by REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Today Rafa played #7 Juan Martin Del Potro in the final of the BNP Paribas Open (aka, Indian Wells). Rafa was playing for his first hard court title since Tokyo in October 2010; Del Potro was playing for his first Masters 1000 title, ever. Rafa held to start the match. The second game was a long one. It took 4 break points, but Rafa finally broke to go up 2-0. Del Potro stepped things and Rafa had an off game and was

17 Mar 2013 | by miri | 76 Comments

IW: A classic match-up, but not a classic match

Photo by REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

We all know the history – Rafa/Roger, Fedal, however you want to call it. Their on-court relationship has been a big part of recent tennis history and each meeting is met with great anticipation. To make this match even more intriguing, this was the first time since 2004 that they met before a semi in a tournament – neither had been ranked low enough for that to happen since 2005. Even knowing Federer was coming into the match with a bad back

14 Mar 2013 | by miri | 31 Comments