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.