Romateers do Rafa ... giorno 5

Good evening lovely Rafateers and lovely Marcus.

Blimey me, what another fab-u-lous day and where again to start? OK ... at the beginning.

We arrived early and made our way to the practice courts. As the ladies had started their qualies they were using them and it was a bit difficult to try and work out about what time Rafa may appear. Anyway, Clare headed off to check out the players' entrance and we shortly all joined.

Alas ... we had missed Rafa arrive.

But lets list who we did see:-

Lovely Mo. We shouted 'hi Mo!' to him and gave him a wave, and he gave us a smile and a wave back.

Feds. Who skulked in without doing any signing. Quelle surprise.

Then there was Tsonga (wearing a big ice pack on his wrist), Juan Monaco, Querry, Isner, Daveed Ferrer on his phone and then the fragrant and very beautiful Ana walked on by.

(Psst Marcus ... I slipped her the web address of your Thread, so maybe she may pop by for Tea and Cake plus Rafan got a picture.)

We had decided that we wouldn't miss any of the day's play in order to stalk out the practice courts, but then a very kindly security man came over and told us that Rafa was out on court number 2 practising.

*run* That was us ... over to the court.


It was already busy, but good old Wooffs snaked her way down to the front and casually slipped Rafan in besides her. We let Clare fend for herself.

After Rafa finished up, Insner and Querry came onto his court and he sat and watch them for a couple of minutes. Then ... with a smile on his face he made a run for it over to the courtside to come and sign for the fans ... and would you believe it ... he did our side!!!

I cannot begin to tell you how exciting it was to see him slowly come down and you think, he's here, he's here ... and there he was, right in front of us signing one of Rafan's 10,679 Rafamags and then there he was right in front of me giving me his signature.

*swoons* and almost *faints*

This bit was blurry in my memory, but Rafan filled me in. I said "Good Luck, Rafa" to him, and he just looked in my direction and nodded at me in acknowledgement ... *screams*. Clare fortunately also got his autograph on her cap, next to Nole's , so then we whoopped, skipped and somersaulted our way to the court.

And so to the matches. Well ... you watched them all for yourselves, so I'm not going to add anything to it.

Rafa faced a very clever Stan the Man and was fortunate to take the first set and the scoreline in the second flattered him a little.

But he's there, he's in the semis and we get to do it all again tomorrow.

I can't begin to tell you the excitement of supporting Rafa for all these years and then to have him there right in front of you. Rafan came out with a lovely line today and that is because of what Rafa does in that he signs when he arrives at the stadium, when at practice, when he leaves ... he's made a lot of people go home very happy tonight.

He truly is a class act. Amazing.

Anyhow, Gulbis up tomorrow who sadly got in the way of making it a lovely Spanish 4-some tomorrow.

But the Armada *fangirls* are still very, very happy tonight. And oh ... I was wearing my tshirt with "RAFA *fangirl*" emblazoned on it. Fantastic.

VAMOS RAFA!!!