WTF: Whipped

Rafa/Roger in a Round Robin match when neither of them is ranked #1. That’s a first and the match was looked forward to with much anticipation. Sadly, it did not live up to expectations as Federer blew Rafa off the court. His play was perfect; Rafa’s was loopy, short and defensive. Federer wins 6-3, 6-0.

22 Nov 2011 | by miri | 110 Comments

RafaLint: November 21st

Inés sends in this video with a bit of footage from today’s practice and a short interview:

Her sum-up: He is better although still very tired. He only has trained about 25 minutes with Toni only.

WTF Rankings:
According to this, Rafa can guarantee a semifinal berth on Tuesday if: he beats Federer in straight sets or he beats Federer in 3 and Fish beats Tsonga.

Articles:

Nadal,

21 Nov 2011 | by miri | 3 Comments

RafaLint: WTF RR1 edition

Articles about the first round robin match:

Raquet Reaction by Steve Tignor (tennis.com)
Nadal Wins Late-Night Battle Over Fish by James Buddell (atpworldtour.com)
ATP World Tour Finals: Thoughts from Day 1 by Courtney Nguyen (si.com)
Nadal beats Fish after stomach problems – Reuters via The Guardian
Lacklustre Nadal has to grind out victory by Paul Newman (independent.co.uk)
ATP World Tour Finals 2011: Rafael Nadal edges past Mardy Fish in late-night thriller at the O2 by Simon Briggs

21 Nov 2011 | by miri | 7 Comments

WTF: RR1 presser

Video of Rafa’s presser:

Posted by TennisNowTV.

21 Nov 2011 | by miri | 15 Comments

WTF: RR1 videos

Pre-tournament interview:

Sunday highlights:

HotShot of the day:

Post match interview:

All videos posted by ATPWorldTour.

20 Nov 2011 | by miri | 4 Comments

WTF: RR1 photos

Some photos from Rafa’s first round robin match against Mardy Fish.

Photos by Christopher Lee/Getty Images for Ricoh, Julian Finney/Getty Images, REUTERS/Toby Melville, AFP PHOTO / LEON NEAL, and Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

20 Nov 2011 | by miri | 8 Comments

WTF: No really, WTF? Oh. *whew*

In the second singles match at this year’s ATP World Tour Finals, Rafa took on #8 Mardy Fish. There were two big questions going into the match: how was Fish’s leg feeling; how rusty was Rafa? At the beginning of the match, Fish’s nerves were showing. By the time he got them under control, it was too late. First set to Rafa. Fish stepped up his game big time in the second while Rafa’s dropped. Rafa was looking frustrated as Fish took it

20 Nov 2011 | by miri | 54 Comments

WTF: Rafa watching Federer/Tsonga

Counting down the minutes until RafaTennis…here’s a few photos of Rafa watching the Federer/Tsonga match from the front row.

Photos by Julian Finney/Getty Images

20 Nov 2011 | by miri | 10 Comments

RafaLint: November 19th

Everyone ready for some RafaTennis tomorrow? Woot!

Articles:

For Final Act, Tennis Season Moves Indoors by Carl Bialik (wsj.com). Whenever I see a reminder of Rafa’s winning percentage indoors, I’m also reminded of how fantastic it was that he made the final last year.
An Insider’s Look At The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals by Robert Davis (atpworldtour.com). Rafa and his Nutella. :D
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Sunday Briefing by Greg Sharko (atpworldtour.com)
Nadal seeking positive finish to

19 Nov 2011 | by miri | 12 Comments

RafaLint: November 18th

Since it was media day at the WTF today, there’s tons of stuff out there with interview snippets.

Articles:

ATP World Tour Finals 2011: Humble Rafael Nadal ready to lift his game to tackle ‘unbelievable’ Novak Djokovic by Simon Briggs (The Telegraph)
Top tennis players set for ATP World Tour Finals by David Ornstein (BBC Sport)
Nadal’s big chance to exact revenge by Ravi Ubha (espn.com)
Rafael Nadal is left in shadow of rivals via the Belfast Telegraph
Nadal: “Necessitava recuperar-me físicament i mentalment”

18 Nov 2011 | by miri | 7 Comments