The absolute sportsman ...

I couldn't help indulging myself on here these past few days, on the fabulous, amusing videos and pictures that have come out of the Armada boys celebrating their victory. And whilst I've loved seeing Rafa for the person he really is, to be honest, the picture shown above perhaps shows us more about ... the person he really is.

When Rafa hit that winning forehand on Sunday, the team ran on the court to start their celebrations. But Rafa made sure that he broke away from it to go and greet his tearful and shattered opponent at the net, following which, he went and shook the hand of every member of the Argentinian team.

Steve Tignor - tennis writer at Tennis.com captured the moment thus ...

"While Nadal fell to the clay, del Potro trudged to the net, leaned over, and started to cry. Nadal, while his teammates jumped and hugged, made his way to the net and consoled him. Then he made his way to the other side of the court to share an embrace with each member of the Argentine team. That’s the men's game in the Age of Emotion. We’ll see Nadal’s forehand winner forever, but if future fans want to find out what tennis at its best was like in 2011, they should keep watching for the show of sportsmanship and deep feeling that followed from both sides."

When Rafa was asked directly about this sensitive act, he simply said ...

"Well, we had just finished a very exciting tie, a beautiful tie. Most of them are my best friends in the circuit apart from those at this table and other Spanish colleagues. The Argentinians are really good friends. We get on really well with them. We have a close relationship with them. Apart from opponents, we are colleagues and friends.

Many of them are there in the bench, and they are very good friends of mine. I wanted to congratulate them, give them the consolation for not winning, but they were playing a very high level."

He really is a special guy ... and after the heat of battle, the absolute sportsman.