For those of you who were wondering ... no, I'm not talking about Denz above.
Well ... another fabulous day has been had on the sunny Cote d'Azur. We arrived around 9.30 am today, and quickly found out that Rafa was practising at 10.30 am and as an added tip off, that Novak would be at the club practising at about 3 pm. So we headed off to the practise court and were stopped for a chat by Viv ... who looked a bit like Yoda, was from Newcastle, and was probably about 84. She proudly told us that she had more pictures of Rafa on show at home than her grandchildren, but unlike us, she didn't want to miss the first match so off she trotted. Which reminds me before I go on. Whilst watching little Daveed yesterday, Rafan pointed his coach out to me and said, "There's Javier Pil-es ... or Javier Piles" then *chortled* at her school-girl joke. "I c'have Piles", I said to her in a mock Spanish voice, joining in with the joke. "Do you??" Rafan than asked me ... DOH, DOH and DOH!!!
Anyway, we were the first to arrive at the court and got prime positions right behind the chairs. Sadly, this practice court has wire meshing up, so although you can watch everything, its limiting when taking pictures and there's no access to Rafa for autographs and things. But never mind. Whilst we were waiting, someone came over and in an American voice said, "Are you Wooffie??" How has my cover been blown??? Turns out it was Miri from NadalNews and as Rafan pointed out, I did send our Rafameet pictures to her, so that's how she recognised us.
He was roughly on time, but Rafa Maymo entered first to shouts of "Good Morning" and "hello" ... and he grinned away and laughed. Then cue Rafa ...
*sigh* <3 <3 <3 *sigh*
So he comes over to the chair which is right in front us with only the wire meshing between us. I told Denz to put those wire cutters away as we wanted to watch the match, and Rafa started his usual warm up with the pully thingies with Maymo. He was wearing a neon yellow top which showed off his tan to perfection. I have to say its brilliant hearing him speaking right in front of you, and somehow a bit odd ... if you know what I mean.
But his business face was on and it was straight to work, doing drills with Toni watching on by. He then came back to the seat for a rest and a drink and I could have kissed the back of his neck, and at one stage, he took his cap off and ran his hand through his hair which was all lovely and long and fluffy at the back. *THUD* He then swopped ends and worked on his volleys and then the serve but probably within the hour ... he was gone. But it was brilliant. Again, I took some photos and Rafan has some lovely ones, but it probably won't be till next week that we have the time to sort it all out. We all waved and shouted 'bye, bye' to Rafa Maymo as he left and he chuckled as he went. He is lovely ...
So we had lunch and then went off to watch the Feds match. He never really showed up, if you asked me, and was very flat. However, a very good match was played by Melzer ... and I was delighted for him. Especially so when cheering him on in a French crowd.
I'm sure you saw how windy it was, and how Feds was distracted by a couple of carrier bags. Fear not, Rafateers, as even though Rafan took her trusty Tesco's carrier bag with her, she kept hold of it tight as it will be the only thing over her head come June 19th .
And then it was Rafatime We noticed that Papa Nadal and Carlos Costa have now joined Rafa's team and were there in his box watching. But up in the stands, we saw that the Nadal ladies have also arrived for a lovely weekend as Xisca, Mum and his sister were there. All looking lovely, I hasten to add. Unlike a lot of the "heaps" that we have seen so far in Monte Carlo.
I have to say that Rafa is still playing within himself if you ask me and still hasn't found blistering form. Maybe he doesn't have to yet, but Looby made it pretty easy for him by not holding on to his own serve until the second set and whilst he pushed towards the end, it was because he had the freedom to hit, and just go for it. Rafa ran out the easy winner.
It had got to 4 pm by this stage, and I was still keen to see if Novak was about and if we could watch him practice. So we went off to the second show court, and he was in there because we could hear him, and through access gaps, we could see Marian Vadja and Radek Stepanek as they were all joining in playing tennis football. It was obvious that no-one was in there, but I went and asked the security if we could go in, but they wouldn't let us. We were being fobbed off a bit by them saying maybe tomorrow, but who knows? We may see him.
Anyhow ... we decided on an early finish as the bus back can sometimes be torture, so we missed the Andy match. Its turned out to be a glorious early evening and the sea was its famous azure blue as we were making the journey home. So I'm sitting here overlooking the boats in the harbour with the sun still glinting on the yachts and we'll be going for dinner sometime soon. Tis a hard life, isn't it?
So its a Rafa-Andy semi-final tomorrow. Sure, Andy has had some good results here, but he's fine so long as he's leading if you ask me. It will be a huge test tomorrow, and I think Rafa will step it up too. Its all reaching its conclusion now, but for the moment, we are looking forward to a great day's tennis tomorrow.
So ta, ta for now from me and Denzy & Rafan xxx
VAMOS RAFA!!!!!
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