Rafateers do Roma - il giorno finale ...

Good afternoon lovely Rafateers!! Hugs

Hope you are all enjoying your Bank Holiday. Well ... the Romateers are back in Blighty but what a fantastic time we all had. Apologies for no report yesterday following Rafa’s magnificent triumph, but we missed the 11 pm deadline due to the rain delays, the match finishing late and too much gin *Rafan*.


But what a day we had. We awoke to magnificent sunshine and decided to get a last bit of sight-seeing in before heading off to the Foro Italico. So it took all my self control to restrain Rafan from doing her Anita Ekberg impersonation at the Trevi Fountain, we then wandered to the Pantheon and back to the Spanish Steps.


As I was forced to get up at some ungodly hour by the other two to be dragged around Italian relics, we still ended up arriving at the stadium early and went to hunt out Rafa at the practice courts ... which was full of the lady players.

So we then decided “to go to the toilet” and wandered over to the player’s entrance. I’m not really up on the ladies tennis, but we did get to see Serena (who looks sooooo pretty in real life), Jelena Jankovic (whose boyfriend is better looking), Wozzie, and a heap load of others that I just don’t recognise. But then the cries of Rafa! Rafa! started, and out came our boy in order to make his way to the Player’s Area to do some media stuff, flanked by a couple of minders. As ever, he came over to the crowds to sign and Clare got another TWO autographs (the second being cos Rafa smudged the first one). Rafan was unlucky, but I’d become the self-elected pap and decided to follow him as he did a semi-jog over to the Player’s Area, clicking my camera as I went. I only managed to get shots of him from behind though *shame*.


We then took up our position behind the boarding as what goes in, must eventually come out. Clare was there with the Spanish flag and a very shy Daveed walked into the area and he stopped to sign it. But eventually, out came Rafa.

I was right opposite the entrance and just handed Rafan’s 2009 Queens programme out to him (he’s on the front with the trophy) which he just looked at and then said to me, “Pen? Pen?” ... which of course I didn’t blinkin’ have, but someone stepped in and he then signed. I took a few snaps and he did his usual thing of going down the line. He came to Rafan and signed her Rafacap, following which Rafan said to him “Good luck. Rafa. You can do it, you can DO it!” And he just looked right at her and said, “Thank you”. (erm, that was Rafan ... not Rafa). Then he moved on to sign Clare’s Spanish Flag – which we weren’t then allowed to wave during the match.

After all this excitement, needless to say, Clare held Rafan’s head whilst I was wafting a handkerchief over her to aid her recovery *poeticlicence*, but we’d had yet another haul from our lovely boy and some words. How lucky are we??? I can’t remember at which point he waved to Clare ... but he did.

And so to the match.


Sadly, after such a good tournament, the weather hampered what would have been a good match. Rafa was always hot favourite and I think its fair to say that he does have the measure of Daveed on clay. But there were a couple of fantastic rallies within it, it was sad that the majority of the Italian crowd didn’t hang around to see it all ... but we were there, and were proud, honoured and delighted to witness him equal Andre’s record of 17 Masters by the age of 23. Well done Rafa, we are so very proud of you.

Obviously we stayed around for the trophy presentation and speeches, and then things were packed away whilst Rafa was still doing TV interviews by the chair. By this time, a healthy crowd had gathered by the players’ chairs as is usual, and you must have seen the players signing there as they left the court. But also, another crowd gathered on the other side of the stadium. We only had access to that side, but we made our way down. When Rafa had finished his media work, guess what he did? Yep ... he went around the whole stadium to greet the tennis fans. He started on our far side of the court and signed all that was put before him, and you guessed it, Clare and Rafan got another haul and of course, the close sighting. He then went across to the crowds on the other side of the court and took his time to sign everything once again, before picking up his trophy, and taking his leave.


So how to sum up the experience and the man? Well ... I would say that the man made the experience. In Clare’s lead-in she states that she didn’t think it was possible to love and respect this man any more, but after this week, she does. And that is something that we all whole-heartedly agree with.

We all love his tennis, and his guts, and his fighting spirit. We make jokes about being on the Rafarollercoaster and as his fans, we’ve not had the best of times over the last year whilst sticking with him and always trying to see the positive. But what I saw this week was something more than just the tennis player. Rafa the man ... and why its about supporting him as well as his tennis. Because I can fail to think of another superstar sportsman – and he is that – a Superstar Sportsman, who ensures that he practices close to the fans so that they can see him, so that they can watch him. He takes time out on entering the stadium, on leaving the stadium, after practise sessions, after matches, to go to the fans to sign all our memorabilia and for that one, split second to make us feel that our support to him matters, and that it counts. And he takes the time to give back to us because of the support that we give to him. He is so high in our esteem right now, I just can’t find appropriate enough words to say it.

So that was our Romateer experience. I hope you’ve enjoyed our reports as much as we did in experiencing them, and over the next few days we will try and share as many of our encounters perhaps not listed to date, including toilet breaks. Rafan is busy sorting through her 100000000000s of photographs and Clare has taken some crackers which I am sure she will post the link to. I’ll try and get those photos I took when he signed our stuff posted too, as they are really good close ups.

This week is going to seem so boring after living the Rafadrim ... but thanks for the memories Rafa, and .. VAMOS!!!