A very sleepy and groggy looking Rafa caught an early plane to start his journey to Abu Dhabi this morning, and as is usual, IB3 were there to capture it.
I'm going for a little trip to Palma myself in February. Walking around Palma airport will be like greeting an old friend ...
Anyhow, David Nadal offered some translation of Rafa's words on Twitter ...
"I will return to Mallorca when my rivals from Australia to send me back here. I start the season a fair bit. In fact I expect nothing from Abu Dhabi display. Just serve training .... Let's see if I get better at Doha and well in Australia, which is what really matters. The shoulder is much improved this week. But after problems in the acromio clavicular muscles they have lost strength and they have not recovered to play at the highest level. It was unclear whether the trip to Abu Dabhi is a risk to Australia, but in the end I decided to go to Abu Dabhi and knock on wood"
Indeed, knock on wood. I hate to say this, but a $1M appearance fee and sponsor commitment might also have something to do with it. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing Rafa again, its not the Rafa of November I want to see. I would prefer him to work slowly towards Indian Wells and Miami with the big push starting in April - just as he said in his El Pais interview - rather than him persist in battling shoulder issues that have been plaguing him since his training after the Asian swing.
But I shall be cheering him on regardless ...
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