Well ... due to becoming another year older and choosing to celebrate by taking a cottage in North Yorkshire where we were duly threatened by nesting swans and feral geese, I became a bit lax in my erst-while Rafa reporting. As I'm now beset with 'man-flu' ... read *suffering from a cold since the weekend but since management team are all out today at an away day I am having the day off*. Not solely to catch up, of course, but I need something to keep me occupied in my recuperation.
Sadly, Indian Wells - after starting with such vigour and wonderful play from Rafa - turned in another Rafa-crisis-of-confidence.
First up was a routine victory over Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-4. Then came a victory over the unlucky Marin Ancic, 6-2, 6-2. The man-mountain of John Isner was Rafa's next opponent, and although he was playing well and reading Isner's serve, all it took was one lapse of concentration on his own and the second set was lost. Rafa came out of it though as the 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 winner. On to the quarter-finals were he disposed of Tomas Berdych in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(4).
So as Rafa has been playing pretty well, I was filled with more than a modicum of hope that the final beckoned seeing as his semi-final opponent was the 31-year-old Ivan Ljubcic, who'd never won a masters 1000 series and the likes of Feds, Murray and Novak had all fallen by the wayside.
In what was a strange match, but is turning out to be a bit of a worrying pattern at the mo', Rafa raced ahead and was a superb first set winner at 6-3. He was still playing great in the second and on 2 occasions had 40-0 up on Looby's serve for breaks which he just could not put away. The match surprisingly turned at 4-4 in the second, as Rafa's nerves kicked in and the confidence was not there as he was broken, which led to Looby serving out for the second at 6-4.
Rafa's lack of confidence continued as he played a woeful first service game of the final set, and worries were abound as he was broken. However, he promptly broke back and the match ended up in a tie-breaker. Rafa then played what must have been THE most passive breaker ever, and he was easily take out by 7 points to 1.
So, a very disappointed Rafa was out after a week that showed such good promise. However, positives to take were that his fitness seemed fine. Surprisingly, that once famed mental strength and aggressive, positive attitude is the thing that is failing him now. However, whilst he proved to be match-tight, the semis is still a good result after time out. So as we keep saying Rafa ... Keep Colm and Carry On ...
