Day 7 - Beyond tired ...

I had all sorts of titles in my head for today's report because so much has gone on, but I cannot impart upon you just how tired we are and how nerve wracking today's match was. Its not helped by me being the resident alckie in the corner and insisting upon G&T and a pichet to myself to curb my upset at the football result, but that's another story ...

So I'll try my best to give an brief account of the day ...

Larky "up with the larks" Rafan, was off to MC before Denz and I and we took a leisurely morning thinking we had bags of time to get to the country club for practice and the matches.

Wrong.

You know how you wait forever for a bus and then 7 go past you with the "Complet" sign, ie. FULL ... well, that was us. We were panicking like mad towards the end and blessing the fact that Rafa was only on at 3pm cos we thought we'd at least make it for that. Anyhow, eventually we got lucky, but we missed practice, only Rafan didn't. However, he was on the Court des Princes and they let the fans in at one end, but Rafa practiced at the other and Rafan was a bit disappointed with her pictures today, but hey ho. She did, however, manage to get Uncle Toni's autograph.


Denz and I made it in time for the first match, so nothing lost really. And we were all absolutely delighted for little Daveed as although Melzer had managed to beat Feds, he didn't beat him. And he was so pleased to get to the final. Loved it.

Then Rafa time.

Rafateers, what to say? Rafa won that first set by virtue of Andy's mistakes and not his own play. And his performance in the second set was woeful. To never even try and attack a second serve, to stand as far back as humanly possible, to never take the play to Andy ... what was that Rafa?? It was torture to watch, and the set went to its inevitable conclusion.


However, from the word go in the 3rd, he seemed more his old self. I don't really want to go on about what Murray's injury was or what he was feeling, but Rafa at last seemed to have some life in him and finally make some play. Rafan was hoarse from shouting for Rafa, we did our best to cheer him on, but sitting there as a fan in the stands was a nightmare, Rafateers. He kept going though ... by whatever means he made it, and thank the Lord we see him in the final tomorrow.

We did have a lovely end to the day though, as we all had a few words with Rafa's Mum.


We obviously had to go to the loo after that lot which isn't so far from the VIP area. When we were out, Rafa's Dad went passed us, but we didn't stop him. But Rafan said something first to his Mum (and she's gone to bed now so I can't quite check), but it was something like pass on congratulations for his win. Denz and I went to say a few words and I just said something similar which was, "Congratulations to Rafa. We love your son", and she just said "Thank you, it was very close today". Then Denzy said to her, "I just wanted to say what a lovely boy your son is, and how proud you must be of him, we think he is just wonderful", and she again said "Thank you, I am." and Denz said, "That's lovely". And it was an ambition realised for Denz, as she's always wanted to say that. Rafateers, she is just sooooo lovely. There were so many people just wanting to pass on their best to her and have pictures and stuff. They're a lovely family.

But it made us laugh that Rafa's sister was there and just going as if to say ... "Mum ... come on!!!!"


So that's it for tonight guys. Too tired for even me to go on anymore. We're looking forward to the final tomorrow. We're also looking forward to some Rafa support. The French fans don't deserve him.

Night night all ... off to bed ...