Well, whilst I've been trying to get over my French Riviera experience and doing all my musings and cooing over working my way through my photos and the reports I did ... Rafa carried on with the Tour and played at Barcelona. :D
He skipped the tournie last year in order to have a rest inbetween tournaments and to carry on with the treatment on his knees. So as Rafa said, this is the only time this year that he will not be defending points. Anyhow, this is a brief round-up of what happened.
His results and victories were as follows ...
Daniel Gimino-Traver - 6-1, 6-1
Santiago Giraldo - 6-3, 6-1
Gael Monfils - 6-2, 6-2 where his play was imperious
Ivan Dodig - 6-3, 6-2
And so he faced David Ferrer in the final for the second week running. I have to say that I found the final difficult to watch, as Rafa's play was largely not good, there were a few losses of serve, and basically David just can't get over the mental thing that Rafael Nadal is facing him over the net and he just doesn't believe.
I'm a bit worried about some of Rafa's play. He's nowhere near as good as he was last year - but can we keep expecting that? He already looks a bit weary, and I cannot erase that deep rooted fear that someone is going to bring a shock result against him.
But let's be positive. Rafa achieved another magnificent milestone at this tournament in which he achieved his 500th ATP match victory and entered the list at No. 2 behind Bjorn Borg as the second youngest to do it.
So now its a week off for Rafa ... and back to work for me ... and it all starts again in a week at Madrid.
No comments:
Post a Comment