Rafan's Raspberry Ripple ...

This is a lovely photograph taken by Rafan herself as she watched Rafa's match on Philippe Chatrier yesterday. She was sitting behind and along from Uncle Toni and could hear his words of encouragement ... NOT coaching!  :D

Anyhow ... here's her report of her day at Roland Garros ...

"Hurrah! Finally got to see Rafa today.

We were planning on a fairly leisurely start this morning, when word came through via the Twitterverse that Rafa was going to practice on Court 15 at 11.30. Bags were rapidly packed and six English ladies ran to Roland Garros. Luckily we got there in plenty of time and saw our Spanish TV men who confirmed that Rafa would be practising there.

Rafa arrived on time to whoops and cheers and was practising with a little-known Frenchman called Maxim something or other. We know because some French people came and stood next to us and their tennis coach knows him ... apparently he qualified for the first round of RG last year.

Rafa was in red but his shoes were ... raspberry. I'll leave that to you to decide whether that's pink or red. For me, at the match, the shirt is pink (but red with your sunglasses on!).

Anyhow, his training was kind of normal, quite short today, but lovely to see him. His serve wasn't that great but other than that, it all seemed fine. We were standing in blazing sun, and it's a bit of a shame because the people that were in the shady bit also got autographs when he came off court.

After that we went and got an ice-cream and then went in to watch a bit of Reeshar, but came out after a while because we were boiling alive! I went and got some lunch and sat in the shade for a while before girding my loins to go in for the last few games of Reeshar's match. Thank goodness he didn't have his usual brain fart and managed to close it out in three.

Then :fanfare: it was Rafa time!

He got a great reception from the crowd, and the match was ok for a first round (especially compared to last year!), the serve could have been better and the focus went walkabout in the second, but other than that it was all good. We were sitting fairly close to the players' box and heard Toni shout "vamos Rafel!" when he was struggling to hold on to the second break.

After the match we went and had a beer to celebrate, but I wanted to see Serena for the first time so stayed behind to watch. It got to 5-0 in the third, I couldn't stand the crowd anymore, and was a bit worried about finding my way back, so I left...and of course missed all the drama!

I was proud that I managed to find my way back (ask Wooffs about my sense of direction! [its pants! love Wooffs]) and when I got to the hotel the Spanish TV guys got in the lift with me. It only turned out that one of them had lived in my home town for two years!

I re-met the girls and we went out to a Spanish restaurant where I had paella and sangria, and very nice it was too!

Tomorrow we are getting up early for a mad dash (hopefully) to the top of the Eiffel Tower before heading home, where I will spend hours uploading my photos for your delight!! ".

Brilliant!!  Rafan is on her way home now and I would like to thank her for allowing me to publish her little reports.  If she's up to sharing some more of her experiences, of course I'll post them.  Equally, I cannot WAIT for her photographs, so I'm sure she'll be happy that we can take a look at them here also.

So keep posted ... VAMOS!!