An artist at work ...

... and this time it's not Rafa.



Hot on the heels of the successful paintings sold for charity during the WTF, Latvian artist - Ritums Ivanovs - produced 10 paintings of Rafa, Feds, Novak, The Sod, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Verdasco, Marcos Baghdatis and Ernests Gulbis. The paintings were on display at Doha, and the link below shows more of the players' paintings and information.

http://ritumsivanovs.com/blog/exxonmobil-open

Guess who's been playing with the "cut" function ...

... ME!!!

What does Rafa do on a Saturday night when not facing a Grand Slam final in the morning ...

... he goes to the footie. Such a shame how it all turned out ... Vamos Rafa!!

But it seems that he's bought a new cardie ... *run*

Remember this ...

... good, wasn't it?

Rafa and the penguins ... !!!!

OMG! I can't believe these pictures. Remember I asked about Rafa's trip to the aquarium and he said the penguins were great and that he would post some pictures to his Facebook? Well ... I missed that - how? I really do not know.

But how cute!! Rafa ... Maymo ... AND ... penguins!! Love it.

Righto! Let's cheer ourselves up ...

Now ... I know the impostor formally known as Rafa is shortly to appear in the new Armani ads with a haircut that is not real and to hide his embarrassment of appearing in his undies, Armani decided to give him a new face ... but what the hell! Lets perv away.

Hovver ... yes h.o.v.v.e.r not h.o.o.v.e.r over the images in the attached link and work your way over that famoos ass. Yes ... its Friday night, and I'm a bit squiffy!! *bubbly*

http://www.armanijeans.com/armani_jeans_index.html

The greatest player that ever lived ...

My first foray into absolute fan-dom of a tennis player was with John McEnroe. I was only a girl in the '70s - its the true! - but John's breakthrough year was 1979, the year of the Superbrat, and I was obsessively hooked. He infamously crashed out of Wimbledon that year on the middle Saturday on the infamous Court 2 - the graveyard of Champions - and I thought I'd never recover. I travelled through the night down to London on National Express to get to Wimbledon to see him play in 1982 and I had the excitement of him walking past me in a clubhouse in Didsbury, Manchester when he came to play a grass court tournie - and I still to this day cannot remember why he was there.

And here I am ... some 30 years later ... doing it all again!! *doh* Going through the same torment and caring too much. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love that JMac loves Rafa. I love that my past love, loves my present love. There's so much love in this post ... I think I'd better leave the room. The greatest player? Coming from one of them, that's some compliment, John.

Rafa's back home ...

Looking tanned and seemingly relaxed, lovely Rafa is now back home in his beloved Mallorca following his AO heartbreak.

NadalNews brought us the video clip along with a google mangle that he was being evasive about whether he would be playing in the Davis Cup.

Whatever it takes, Rafa. Just get yourself healthy and back raring to go ...

Rafa's Blog ...

As if this man has not been classy enough in defeat, get a load of his final Times blog entry from the Australian Open ...

Hello everyone,

Well, the Australian Open came to an early end for me. It is unfortunate but this is how it is. No excuses, no nothing.

David played a great match and he deserves to be in the semis against Andy.

Too bad for me since I would have loved to play Andy for a chance to be in the final. We had a great match in London and it would have been nice, but the one who will play him deserves it more.

I am flying back tonight to Spain and will get some rest before starting again practice. I will do some tests to see if there is something serious or not but I am sure I will be fine.

Maybe I get the question about the Rafa Slam? Well I never spoke about that as you all know. That was more the media who pushed that and I understand it.

But this shows once again that match by match is what you really have to look at and not those records before they happen. It didn't and I knew it would be very difficult.

Once again I want to thanks all my fans and you for being there, supporting me and reading what I write... Not sure I would do it :-)

Thanks to The Times also for the opportunity and we will do this again during Roland Garros, The French Open. Hope it will bring me luck again over there.

Rafa

It makes me want to weep ...

And I know this may be crass to introduce this right now, but one of the main reasons for me doing this blog, was to capture my memories and thoughts and happy times of this journey I'm on supporting Rafa. Just so that in years to come, I want to be able to look back on it and remember it with so much fondness. And to this end, I've been unbelievably lucky in that Rafa has answered so many questions of mine this time round. Indeed, a further three since I've been away. So I'm putting them here ... even if The Times did decide that a question on football should come from someone called "Jim" rather than "Jules" ... Hehe ...


Hola Rafa!! I have been very impressed by some of the sports photography taken of you at this tournament. Do you or anyone within the family keep scrapbooks of your matches and your career to date? Love, Julie xx

RN - Yes, Benito and Carlos do keep a good digital book.

Hola Rafa! In the build-up to the charity matches you played in December, it was really nice to read the interview your mother gave about her role within it. She must be so proud of you, but are you also proud of her with the work she is putting in to your foundation, and can you describe more about her role? Love, Jules xx

RN - Yes, sure. She is taking the foundation very seriously and working a lot. The Madrid exhibition was a lot of work and she was on top of every single detail. She was coordinating all efforts and she also did a lot of interviews to promote the event. She only did interviews as president of the foundation.

Hola Rafa! Even though you're in Australia, did you manage to watch the "big" match on Sunday, Real Madrid vs. Real Mallorca? If so, what are your thoughts on the result and can you explain a bit more on your involvement with Real Mallorca. Jim

RN - I did. I was divided there since I am a fan of both teams and my uncle Miquel Angel is the second coach of the Mallorca team.

The presser ...

I like to think I'm good with words ... well, I have the vanity to do this. But sometimes, Rafa says it all, and there's no need for any of my embellishment. This is one of those moments, with excerpts from Rafa's presser ...

"The tennis career, you have higher moments and lower moments. I had almost all the time very, very happy moments and very nice moments in my career. That's part of the sport. Last year I was very lucky. I was healthy most of the year. I was playing unbelievable during all the year.

This year I did I think all the right things to start the season playing really well. And, seriously, I was playing like this in the first exhibition in Abu Dhabi. After that starts the problem. Was a difficult month for me, no?

That's part of the sport. Accept; keep working; try my best in the next tournament. That's what I can do.

Last year I had a fantastic year. This year the year just start. Last year in the beginning I had problems, too, and finally was the best season of my career. I think is almost impossible to repeat that. But remain a lot, and remain a lot to have hopefully really good moments, and at the same time, too, really negative moments.

So this is one of bad ones, one of negative moments. That's part of the sport. I think I am very, very lucky sportsman about what happened in my career. And I have to accept the fantastic moments that I had during a lot of years with the same calm that when I have problems. And if I am ready to accept both things with I think let's say everything the same, I going to be able to come back and play my best tennis another time."

It makes me cry just reading it. Here it is in its full version. The man is pure class ...

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2011-01-26/201101261296046110048.html

Australian Open - closure ...

I've been away on business for the past few days ... channelling Rafa in Madrid. And I managed to bag off attending a super boring technical meeting in order to lounge in my hotel room and watch Rafa.

It broke my heart.

As we all know now, Rafa tore his thigh or hamstring, whichever report you're reading, and from that moment on at some point in that gruelling 23 minute opening service game of Rafa's ... it was over for him. For a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, it was difficult to watch. Credit to Daveed who didn't lose his focus, but there were points he looked over at Rafa where I think he was willing him for his own sake to retire.

But pride and respect for his friend and countryman and his overwhelming desire NOT to retire in a match again following last year, strove him on to the finish. At the change over in the penultimate game, Rafa held his head in his hands and looked like he was weeping. Two years ago, Rafa sat at a change of ends and caught a dandelion spode to wish upon, and had tears in his eyes when he knew he was about to go through to his first hardcourt Slam final. This time ... he was going home.


Rafa speaks always of needing to enter Slams in "perfect condition". Following his virus in Doha he was not ... but I thought I saw enough in his match against Cilic to show that it was perhaps coming back. But injury - once again - did for him, as Rafa's super fit body was probably suspect to be "broken" following that illness.

So there is no RafaSlam, or Grand Slam or "mini" Slam, Mr Laver. Just a young man with a sad heart having to go through one of those defeats that really, really hurts.

But bless you Rafa. Once again your dignity, class, poise, respect and sportsmanship came through. You'll be back. We love you ...

Good luck against Cilic, Rafa!!

Its not been great reading quotes from Rafa about his tiredness and the weight he lost is just one match. Can he keep going? Will he be able to get through this?? I want to see "The Face" ... here's hoping we see this look tomorrow ...

I'm getting good at this ...

*cough* Another question answered ...


Hola Rafa!! After your second-round match you said that in your downtime, you'd like to go to the aquarium. When I visited Melbourne, I didn't go although I was told it was amazing. Why do you find it so particularly fascinating? Love, Wooffs

RN - I love the sea and I love fish. I enjoy very much watching everything there. The penguins were funny and amazing. But the whole thing is really cool.

Rafa beats Toxic Tomic ...

Well ... that certainly wasn't the best of displays from Rafa. The first set was 'good enough', I suppose without Rafa doing anything lights out but DISASTER struck at the start of the second. Blink, and Rafa found himself a double break down and behind 0-4. In his post match interview, he told Jim Courier that he was thinking that he hoped he'd win the third. However, this is Rafa, and he took the next 4 games to level it up. 4 straight aces later and he was 5-4 down, but those were the last games Tomic won in the set. The third was more or less straight forward, and Rafa won the match 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.

I suppose the most stand out thing in the match was the sweat drenched shirt which was absolutely sticking to him. Now, I know we all go bonkers over shirt changes ... but there were five of them. FIVE. Now part of me is thinking that this new style of shirt just draws the sweat out of him, but there's been a bit of slightly worrying development in some translations I've been reading from Rafa's Spanish pressers. Is he still suffering for what was ailing in him Doha?? He speaks of being tired in training and that's unusual. He's referred to the sweating and that he sweats more when he is anxious but he's sweating more in training and of course, he's not anxious when training. And he mentions that its worrying. *Yikes* He also tells us that he had several blood tests after Doha, but they didn't reveal anything. I don't know what to make of it really, but at least with a Slam, he does have more recovery time. His fitness is tantamount to his game, so feeling "tired" ain't good. I suppose we'll just have to watch this space.


Anyhow, here's his lovely interview with Jim Courier. *love* And we also get him removing one of the infamous sweating shirts ... :D

Rafa! Rafa! Rafa!

Here's a very short clip brought to us by NadalNews of Rafa's Australian Open.

I'm exhausted watching it, and it just goes to show that Rafa doesn't have a moment to himself. Maybe we need more of this to appreciate the kind of demands there are on him ...

Shoes!! now the Clothes!!

It may only be the start of the season, but t'interweb is full of what - apparently - Rafa will be wearing at the French Open.

Now this could be a tad previous, as we still have his early Spring and Clay Court Season outfits to look forward to, but hey ... it seems that tight, shiny, sweaty tops are the order of this year. Who's complaining??

However, what I want to know is ... where are the checks??

Shoes!!

Seems that its not just Carrie Bradshaw that has the fetish ... our Rafa likes his shoes too!!

Here he is proudly showing off the new Nike shoes he got from Tuts with his name emblazoned on them. And ... his whole team have their own monogrammed pair. Those boys and their shoes ... what are they like??

The hair looks nice, Rafa ...

They're heeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre ...

Now then ladies. I know we are all waiting on tenterhooks for the February publication of Rafa's Armani undies and jeans shoot. And wowzers! We've been treated to a sneaky preview today. But I dunno ... what do you think??

I mean this picture. Yep ... the bod is HOT. But who is it? Its been photoshopped so much, that its hardly even looking like Rafa. A tad disappointing ... but I'd still ping those pants ...

Now this one is a lot better, and I like the eyebrow action. And at least we get to see what Rafa would look with short hair ... *laugh* They've re-designed him ... again.

Lets reserve judgement till we see the full shoot. Or am I being picky??

Questions, questions, questions ...

How exciting. Not only have I had my third (!) question answered by Rafa, but three of us Rafateers - myself, Rafan and Denzy - had questions answered today, and Denzy's question made the headline!!

Mine first ...

Hola Rafa! We quite often see you with your Quely biscuits. However, an excellent biscuit is to be found in Australia called “Tim Tams”. Have you tried them?? Love, Jules

RN: I always have them with me. I eat them since I am a little kid and I have them at every place and every tournament I go to since they send me a whole box every week. I will try those you mention but I am more than sure that they won’t be better than the Quely’s :-)

What I didn't go on to tell him, is how to have a Tim Tam orgasm. No ... seriously. What you do is nibble each end of the biscuit, then dunk one end of the biscuit in a cup of coffee and suck the coffee through it, then quickly get the whole lot in your mouth ... cos it then explodes. So you have the liquidy chocolate, and coffee, and the sensation of it all exploding and its ... YUM!! For UK viewers, Tim Tams are sold in Harvey Nichols and nowhere else that I know of. Eh ... we is classy on this blog!!

Anyhow ... here are Denzy's and Rafan's questions ...

Rafa, as you spend so much of your year living out of a suitcase, which three things do you always like to have with you? Love Shani

RN: Music for sure, my lap top computer and my tennis stuff

Rafa, it has been reported that you aren’t very keen on dogs. Do you like other animals — have you ever held a koala bear while in Australia? :-) Good luck in your next match — vamos! Love Sam

RN: Yes I do but not to have them at home. I have had the chance in the past to see the Koala and it is quite cool!

How to deal with a wet t-shirt ...

TAKE IT OFF, RAFA!!!


That's right ... peel it off slowly ...


Wipe yourself down ...


Take a sip ...


Have a moan at Maymo ...


... then laugh your head off!!!

Sugar is Sweeting

Rafa faced American rank outsider at #116 - Ryan Sweeting - today in his second round match ... and made very short work of him winning 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.

I haven't seen any of the match, but it seemed a very one sided affair, although Rafa went walkabout for a game in the second set and lost his serve, but to no effect. Speaking of the serve, reports I've read are stating that Rafa's was on fire today. Great stuff. It does, of course, affect his first serve percentage, but that's a stat worth reducing due to the extra bite he now puts on it. He faces local "hero", Aussie Bernard "Bad Boy" Tomic in the next round.

I have to say I'm loving some of the sports photography from this tournie. Below is an example of some alternative tennis shots. Great stuff.

Here's the vid clip of Rafa's presser ...

The Open Drive with Rafa ...

Eurosport are showing "In the Tour Car" interviews with all the players. This is a bunged up Rafa's ... He would have been footballer if not a tennis player.

Wow! There's a new revelation ...

Blimey ... I've managed it again!!

You won't believe it, but Rafa has answered another of my questions!! It really does feel fantastic though ... so indulge me. *wink*

Hola Rafa! I am impressed with the different modes of transport that have been laid on for you to get you to tournament sites. The boat along the Thames to go to the WTF, the helicopter in Toronto, as well as the usual tournament cars. What’s your favourite mode of transport? - Love, Julie

Walking from the house I rent in Wimbledon to the tournament site. Really!

They're a cheeky bunch, Down Under ...

Rafan text me with a funny tale over the weekend. She had taken that dreamy picture of Rafa on the sun lounger to have printed at her local Boots. The shop assistant looked at it and said, "Is that a professional photo?". To which Rafan elicited this huge, big fat whopper ... "No." She said. And that was it. At least she didn't try to pass Rafa off as her boyfriend ... *run*

Anyhow ... can you imagine her reaction when she saw this cheeky Rafaroo holding out a t-shirt containing probably all our favourite picture from THAT photo-shoot in Hello magazine!! "Wonder if anyone asked HER if that was a professional picture when she had THAT t-shirt printed??" was Rafan's question.

It seems this may have given her a good idea for Monte Carlo. I don't know what's worse. Rafan keeping the t-shirt ON when asking Rafa to sign it ... or taking it off!! Hehe ...

Rafa downs Daniel ...

It was hardly a match really. Marcos Daniel seemed to turn up to it injured and took a 6-0 first set tonking which lasted about 19 minutes. Rafa broke straight away in the second, and then - as what sometimes happens - he lost his focus, and his timing, and the second game saw him face match points and it took an eternity till he finally took it.

At 5-0 down in the second, Daniel called it a day ... and Toni sent Rafa out to the practice courts to work on his serve. *laugh* America's Ryan Sweeting is his next opponent.


Probably the highlight of Rafa's first match was his on-court interview with the marvellous Jim Courier, followed by this studio interview where Rafa is just nothing other than a complete and utter sweetheart. He really is such a special guy and a great champion ... Credit to NadalNews for bringing it to us ...