Hi everyone,

First of all apologies for not sending the blog yesterday and the day before. I did send the answers to your questions before but when I was writing the blog my screen went blue and the laptop crashed. I couldn't believe it. I lost everything and could not get it back on.

Something is wrong with it. I might have to go and buy a new one since it's being happening for a while now. It is also bad for me since I normally look every day to the newspapers to keep me informed of what's going on. I don't know how would it be nowadays to live without internet. Can you imagine?

For me to have internet and my laptop is fundamental. I chat with friends, read the newspapers, look for anything, just everything. If we want to go out and we want to make a reservation for anything we look at it on the internet. So to have my computer crashing is simply a mess...

I also think how did the players did in the past. Must have been difficult. I mean the tennis players, traveling for weeks around the world and with no contact or very little contact with home. Yes, you had the phone but to know and read what's going on back home is something different, don't you think? and how to follow the football? I love it and I love sports so it is necessary to have internet.

Anyway, yesterday I finished very happy with my match. It is one of those matches that are very tricky. Troicki is a player that is very dangerous and have improved a lot this year. I'd played him before earlier this year and he had a set point in the first set and was a break up in the second at the Australian Open. You know, you make a mistake or get distracted and you can find yourself packing the luggage and heading back home. So I really felt great after the match. I feel I am playing better now than on the first match and that's great for me.

So today I have a pretty good day since I am practicing this morning and then have arranged to go and see Real Madrid play. We have found this play where they show it and we will go there to have lunch (late lunch) and see the first match of Real Madrid at the Spanish League. Last Sunday we went there to see the Super Cup of Spain and Golf where Sergio Garcia was playing. Today more of the same.

Lots of people ask me if I have time to see the cities and go out. I have mentioned it on my blog several times. During competition is difficult to go out and do sightseeing or tourism since it takes a lot of time and energy. But to go out to a musical like a did the week before the Open or to go like today to watch some football is OK. Not very intellectual, I know, but not much time and definitely no time to go to the Metropolitan Museum for the moment. with practice, work with media, meetings and my family now here things are more difficult on this regard.

So, apologies for not sending the blog yesterday and thanks again.Rafa

Hello everyone,

First of all I would like to apologize because this will be a very short blog. The reason for this is that I have just arrived to the hotel and it is half past midnight. This is the thing I like less about the night matches. Today it wasn't too bad since the match was pretty fast. But if a match lasts 3 or even 4 hours, I could have gotten here by 2-3 am and you know how it is: press, something to eat, the transportation back to the hotel and also the tension after a match that has you awake until late. It can be 4 or 5 in the morning when you really go to sleep. Not the best when you are going to compete in less than 48 hours.

But on the other side I have to admit and say that the night crowds here in NY are somehow special. Very noisy, very much into the match, a fun experience. Very different from Wimbledon that is also fun and the ultimate thing. You know what I mean.

I came to the hotel as I say over midnight and we are waiting in my room, Rafa Maymo, Tomeu Salva and me to have room service dinner. In the mean time I write this blog and the one I am writing for a Spanish newspaper. They are similar but not the same for those of you that speak Spanish. Of course that the things I do are the same in any language, right?

Sometimes I read your comments to the blog but not every day. It depends if I have time, if Benito is around (he helps me with translations), etc. But I do read them sometimes. Thanks in any case for the comments and support.

Tomorrow I practice at 12 and therefore I will leave to the site around 10.30. Not much time to sleep but you know that I normally sleep 6/7/8 hours max every day. Enough to recover!

Thanks again.

Rafa

Hi Everyone,

One more day here in New York and happy to be writing today this blog. Don't ask me why but today I feel like I have the time I need to do so and got something to tell you that is important. It was my second consecutive day without playing and tomorrow I play again.

One thing that is kind of weird is that I played my first round on Monday and my next match, my second round match, is tomorrow, Thursday, and it's the last match!!! Not second or third or even fourth ... last match.

From a technical point of view it doesn't make much sense but I do understand it is a TV thing and also the tournament has told us that it is because they wanted me to experience the night match and the crowds here at that time. I understand although as I say it is strange to have such a big gap during a tournament to play.

So a calmed day that I thought would be shorter at the tournament. It is always the same with me. I intend to come back early and in the end always something comes up. I practiced not too early, at 12.15 noon with Tomeu my friend who is here as a hitting partner. I had planned to come back to the hotel at 2pm or so. But in the end, once again I only managed to get to the hotel by 6pm.

The reason for that is that I had a meeting with Ivan Ljubicic. Ivan has recently been elected and appointed as the European Player Board representative. We had a meeting and went through the stuff that the board has been discussing at the meetings in these past days. Things have changed. The president of the ATP left, he resigned, I suppose since he knew he did not have the support of a lot of people, and I believe that things will go better now.

We have had lot of talks lately and I see now that the players are more together. The meeting today with Ivan is one more example. There is an open channel of communication now open with our representatives and we can get things done together. It was important to meet and our commitment is there. I am happy to spend time trying to help improve the game. Now we know what's cooking and we can give our input since we are in the Player Council.

Hopefully we can work for the better of the game.

Hi everyone.

Another of those days today where we don't play. Not only that, since tomorrow I am not playing either so it makes it a kind of funny day. Yesterday it was a match day and therefore the routine is more or less the same as every day I play. Warm up in the morning and wait to be called to go on court. After that the usual press conference, pictures with the US Open Series trophy and back to the hotel.

Talking about these US Open Series, i "only" played two events and had the luck to win it. I won Toronto and made it to the semifinals in Cincinnati. That allowed me to have the same number of points as Andy Murray but since I defeated him in Toronto the head to head made me win the thing and now I have the chance to win the biggest prize money in tennis. Some people do not really appreciate the game that Andy has. He is really good, very good.

Coming back to this prize money thing, the other day someone asked me about this fact. Do we really think about the money when we walk on court, and the answer is clear and simple without sounding arrogant. We really don't think about it when we step on court. We want to win. The most important thing is the honor to win a certain title. No chance to think about the amount of money at stake on the final of Wimbledon. The most important thing is to win the title and I am sure this is the way most of the players think. I hope no one misinterpret what I am saying.

Anyway, today was that kind of day where you practice and at the same time you have some time off without thinking about the next day and the match to come. It is way more relaxing and it allows you to have some time off and do things that normally you can't do. As a matter of fact I went to play some golf after practice with Tomeu Salva, a friend of mine since we were kids that sometimes travels to tournaments with me and also helps me as hitting partner, and Benito my PR Manager.

We had a good time and we came back to the hotel around 8.30 pm. I went out for dinner with a big group of people including Sergio Garcia the golfer who also came earlier in the day to my practice. We hit some balls and arranged to go out tonight for dinner with some friends. We talked a lot about golf. I have to say I love that sport and with people like Sergio giving you some tips, it is easier to improve. At least on the theoretical part... the tough one is when you go out and play...

Hi Everyone,

Here I am back writing a blog for you this time from New York. Initially I didn't feel like writing another blog since I really don't know if it's liked or not and I don't really know what to write about. I hope that I am not too boring because I would hate that. But they have kindly asked me again to do it and I will be answering your questions and writing a few of the things I do during the day here in New York. Also a good way to let my fans know, first hand, what I think and do. I don't think this will be a very deep blog if you know what I mean.

So that you understand, I normally do this blog either before going out for dinner or just after that. We sit, and do the blog. It takes some time and I am happy to do it, but it is not easy for me to just sit here, answer to all your questions (that's the easy part) and then try to come up with a great, deep, writer's blog.

Having said that, some of you may not know that I left home Mallorca on Friday July 18th. Wimbledon's final was on Sunday July 6th (I'll never forget that), went to Stuttgart on Monday July 7th having only slept one hour, got back home to Mallorca on that same day and started my 7 1/2 days holiday.

Resumed practice on Tuesday 15th and as I say left home to go to Toronto on Friday 18th. I played Toronto (won) and Cincinnati (semis but grabbing the #1) and from there fled (?) to Beijing via Chicago straight. No rest, no days in Mallorca. Then played the Olympics and on Monday after the tennis was over fly straight to NY where I have been now for a week.

Some people might not think this is the right decision but I talked long with my manager Carlos Costa and my uncle Toni about it. They thought and I agreed that the best is to keep with the good swing and the results. My uncle always say that you have to take the good moments and I was feeling strong enough to do this. We can come back to this in the next days.

In the mean time the tournament has started and I played today. Not a great match, I didn't feel great out there but did the job and managed to win an always difficult first round match.

Many thanks to all.

Rafa

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