Carnival's over ...

Well that was just plain horrible, wasn't it?

I had high hopes for Brazil. Whilst I might not have spent the time posting the pictures and videos on here, I was nonetheless totally enjoying Rafa being, well ... Rafa. Having a blast, joining in with the carnival, partaking in a little samba. And I sat back and smiled and clucked like a Mother Hen saying to myself, "never change, Rafa" as he again reminded me why I love him so much. He's totally natural, totally spontaneous, and totally fun. As you sift through social media and vomit over the forced selfies of Smugly and roll your eyes over Beaverhead's totally media staged "mobbing" of him as he desperately tries to find any passer-by to pay him some attention at a Belgrade supermarket, you say to yourself that those two desperately want it, but will never have it. Rafa's charisma and charm, it's priceless ...

But the tennis hasn't been. The time difference and his match scheduling meant that I had to record the matches, and then I never find the time to watch them, but he's been struggling for form. I don't understand the technical stuff about the balls, but the heat and humidity has been tough, and I don't think the organisation of the event has been the best. The scheduling has been a joke and frankly, who doesn't struggle to stay up to do anything past 3 am, never mind play a competitive tennis match as Rafa had to do in his quarter final. It's just plain stupid.

But I still expected a result against Fognini. Now I know he brightened up Canada or someplace for my friends who were out there during that bad, Rafa-less time in 2012, but frankly, I think Fognini is a disgrace to tennis. He turns up for matches with an attitude reeking of "I won't win", so barely tries, and this I think was the story of the first set last night. As the commentators frequently reminded us, all Rafa had to do was put the ball into play because Fognini was making no attempt. But there's nothing I can come up with to describe Rafa's absolute collapse in the second. Being a break up twice would have normally left you thinking of victory, but no, he played possibly the worst set I've seen since Wimbledon 2011. Just awful.

He's subsequently spoken of getting tired in that second set, which is unusual. Perhaps not so unusual Rafa when you've had invasive surgery, time out, little tournament practice and only got to bed at probably 5 am that morning. That's hardly conducive to a top athlete, is it? He also lost it with Bernades who penalised Rafa over - you've guessed it - the infamous 25 second rule. Common sense Carlos ... common sense. If the ATP is adamant over a rule that means no player takes more than 25 seconds between points, what about ensuring that a tournament has to accommodate exactly the same amount of recovery time between matches for players? Or disallow the start of any match at midnight? How about that?

I still felt that Rafa would win though. Even though he'd started cramping all over the place, I still thought he'd hold serve and take the tie-break. Cramping ... something Rafa has said had never really happened to him over his whole career. Well that says a lot about the conditions, the scheduling and the tuning of his body, doesn't it?

Pfft. Oh, it was just such a horrid match, won by a god-awful man and one which we just have to draw a line under and move on. It kind of makes you realise though, just how good that "comeback" in 2013 was, doesn't it? There's still time, but I do feel I have to measure my expectations now. Appendectomies, wrists, the back, knees, confidence, mental well-being ... he's walked a long road since that breakthrough year 10 years ago.

Here's hoping that Argentina can bring him some joy ... or at least a good steak dinner. Keep going Rafa ...