Hello and goodbye to all,

I am writing a short note as my last blog post from New York. You know I normally don't do this after I have finished a tournament but thought I should do it today since I lost against your player. I am flying back home to Spain and will have 3 days of rest.  Andy played better than me both yesterday and today and he deserved to win. No excuses, no complaints. Some have asked if I had something to say about yesterday and the match being changed of courts, etc. The conditions are the same for both players and he simply played better. I had said on my previous blog that I knew this was a very, very difficult match. That Andy was playing great and that I knew this could happen. Well, it did.

Tomorrow it will be his first Grand Slam final and I am happy for him. it will be difficult for him since Roger is still Roger. I remember when lots of people were saying he was finished. I always said that Roger deserved more respect, and that he is still there, the favourite always. Well, he is in the final, again. Good luck to both and let's hope we see a great tennis match.

Finally holidays. I left home on July 18th and played Toronto, Cincinnati, Olympics in Beijing and here in New York since then. I will play some golf, be with friends, family maybe fish a bit and not much more. Don't have time for more. Then start practicing again to be ready for the Davis Cup. It will be big and I hope I will be at my top level with the help from the crowd.

I really want to thank all of you who have been reading and sending me questions. It gets me closer to all and hopefully gets me closer to you. I also want to thank the Times Online for this opportunity. Benito tells me it is Neil Harman (stop making fun of my Spanish accent :-) ) and James Major the ones I have to thank, so there you go.

Take care all of you and "hasta pronto".

Rafa

Hi everyone,

Well, one less day or one more day... The thing is that tomorrow the semifinals are here. Or at least that's what we expect. The fact is that the weather forecasts are pretty grey and on this they are like at Wimbledon: they don't make mistakes. That is the reason why we have been scheduled to play not before noon. We might even change the court where we are scheduled to play and we have been told that we have to be ready by then. We could end up playing on the other show court instead of the centre court. This is not usual but they are ready to do it in case it really rains hard so that the semis are both played and the final could be played on Sunday. I really don't mind although I have only played on centre court and I really don't know if that other court is different. But the conditions are the same for both so nothing to complaint about, right?

I know most of you are wanting to know my thoughts about Andy. I have said it many times and I think he is a great player. He has been improving a lot lately and I already said last year he would make it to the Masters at the end of the year. He didn't because of the injury he suffered, but this year he will be there for sure since he's stayed healthy and played great tennis. He won Cincy and showed all he can and knows how to win. The match in Toronto against him was really difficult and close and it could have gone either way.

You know me and I will try hard and give it all to win but even if I lose I think that this tournament has been great and reaching for the first time the semis here is good. I always say that to reach the semis and be one of those last four is always a good result. Better to win, obviously.

Today I write  this blog quite early since I went early to dinner (to my favorite Japanese restaurant in NYC) and now I am going to get my physiotherapy session before I go to bed. We have an early departure at 8am since we need to be ready by 12. You know, with the taping, warm up, shower, more taping and the things before the match we need to be there early. let's see what happens. I hope I can be here again writing a pre-final blog... Would be great.

Thanks to all.

Rafa

Hi everyone,

Once again I start apologising for not sending the blog yesterday.

I am sure this time no one can criticise me for not doing it. I got back to the hotel at around 3.15am !!!! Can you believe it?!?!?!

You might know that I started my match at 11.38pm or so. The whole day went slow and since our match was the last one of the night, we started that late. And it could have been even worse since the previous match finished in 2 sets. It was the Williams sisters and Serena managed to win. But it was close, they were going to a 3rd set !!! I could have started already today. Like Lleyton in Australia earlier this year.

But for me the day was great. I woke up with the news I was really hoping for. The jury gave me the Prince of Asturias award and that is just unbelievable. I know I use this word quite often, but really, to receive that award is the maximum.

It is given considering not only what you do on court but also off court and I really feel proud of it. Carlos Costa, my manager, woke me up with the news, or should I say, I called him when I woke up and he told me.

Anyway it is a great award that really makes me happy and that I thought I would never be able to have it. It goes, as I say, beyond the results of the competition.

For that occasion my team convinced me to do a special press conference before I played. This is something I never do since I think it is important for me to just think about a match the day of play.

All these press gigs take time and you have to do them well so I prefer to do those after I play or on a free day. But yesterday was special. I had to do it and I did it with pleasure. It was at noon, at the hotel I am staying and after that I just got some room service and waited for the time to go to the courts.

By the way I have not spoken much about what I have been eating. I had a very good fried rice with Scallops and mushrooms. They do it really good at this hotel so I have been having it every time I have lunch here.

So you might also ask me what do I do at 3 in the morning? Well we got back at that time and had something to eat. I got some grilled salmon and rice. After that massage and stretching with Rafa Maymo my physiotherapist. In the end I went to sleep around 4.30am and the last thing I wanted to do was the blog.

Today it was an easy day and a day extra for resting. I had some practice at 2pm and it was really, really hot out there. Maybe the hottest day since I have been here, but nothing compared to Beijing so it is OK. Then I had something to eat on-site and I had arranged to play some golf with my uncle Toni. Bad day putting...

Tomorrow more and a good one for you since it is the day before the semis against your favourite Andy Murray.

Thanks to all.

Rafa

Hi everybody,

Short one again today since I have not really done much. Not much to tell today and I am actually about to start watching a movie here in my room. I have called Maymo and Carlos to come and watch it and Benito who was coming also decided to stay at the restaurant where we had dinner with Albert Costa and Feli Lopez who you all know he is a good friend of mine. He lost today his doubles match with Verdasco and so he is flying back home tomorrow. So as I say short one today and I am being help to write this by Rafa Maymo.

The question lots of people have is do I watch the other players' matches? I did see part of Djokovic's match, the last part, since I was at the club practicing. When I finished I had something to eat at the Player's Lounge and had the chance to watch some of it. It was a tough match and that proves that there are no easy matches for anyone. I know Robredo well and we know that it would have been a good match. I also watched Roger's match back at the hotel before going out for dinner. Another tough one and another to make people understand that it is not easy to make it to finals. It is typical that they ask me when I get to a tournament where Roger is playing about a final between us. And today is a prove that it is very difficult to get there. As I always say, match by match.

Another question that I have is about the food i eat. Let me just tell you that I eat lighter the night before the day I play. I have some pasta and maybe some pizza. I leave the meat or even the fish for those days that I play and don't have match the following day. I also never take dessert or coffee. I actually don't like coffee.

Tomorrow more...

Thanks Rafa

Hi all,

Well it has been a very difficult day with a difficult match played. I started playing pretty well and for those of you who have seen the match I ended playing not that great. I played good the first set but mid second I could not find my game, played with bad intensity and made too many mistakes. Thank God I could win in the end which is what really matters. It is important to win those matches that you don't play well. It is easy when everything goes well but at these matches is when you really need to step up.

The day started early since I had a car to pick me up at 8.30 am. We left early so that we could get an early warm up and get ready for the match. It is funny, we call the tournaments sites "the Club". This is the way the Spanish players refers to the tournament sites. I am going to the Club, I am having lunch at the club, I am hitting at the club... in the end most of the tournaments are not played any more at tennis clubs. OK we have big tournaments such as Wimbledon where it is really played at a Club. Or Barcelona, where the tournament is played at the beautiful RCTB, Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Those are clubs and I suppose that the tradition of having those tournaments be played at clubs make us call all the sites clubs. But this US Open is far from being a tennis club. It is a huge stadium and huge grounds that during the year is not a tennis club.

What else can I say from today? not much. You know, it is difficult to know what else to say or write after so many days out of home and at the same place. Probably that is even harder. Everyday is more of the same since we don't have much time to do other things. That's also why I like to answer the questions you send me. It makes it easier. Tomorrow I am going to take it easy and I will try to sleep a bit more than usual. I will try to wake up at around 10am and try to get some extra rest. We are leaving to the club - I mean to the site - at 10.45 for practice.

Many thanks

Rafa

Hi everyone,

I am writing you this blog from a different laptop. Mine is still dead... But, why am I saying this? Who cares, right?

Anyway, everything went today as planned. I got to practice pretty early considering that I had the whole day  but as I said yesterday I had planned to go to see a football match that started at 3 pm. We got a bit late there since unbelievably there was a bit of traffic out there. You may think that on a Sunday there is way less traffic and you get around fast. Well there is way less traffic but it still takes a long time to go from the tournament to the hotel.

Maybe I shouldn't have gone to see the match since Real Madrid lost. First match of the league and they lost. Too bad. We also watched a bit of golf. We actually had two TV screens and could see both. We had lunch there and a lot of people ask me what do I eat? I had chicken tenders with some fries to eat and water to drink. They are pretty good where I went. 

We were around 42nd street and we were 6 of us. We decided to go walking back to the hotel. It is around 15 blocks or so, so a nice walk back to the hotel on a Sunday. On our way back we found out there was a huge Brazilian party on the streets!!! It was Brazil's day and I have to say that walking it was quite amazing to see all those people with yellow shirts and dancing every where. Pretty cool. New York is really special, and this is one of the things of it. So international. We didn't go in the 6th avenue where the party was taking place but all the surroundings were full of people from everywhere.

Tomorrow I have to wake up pretty early around 7.45 (early for a tennis player, come on), since I have a car at 8.30 picking me up and getting to the site pretty early. Have practice at 10/10.30 and then the match against a local player. I am sure the crowds will be supporting him more than me. It is normal. The crowds here in NY likes the underdogs and also he is a local player so I expect a great atmosphere out there. I am sure they will be very respectful with me since they have always been like this. But I know it will be a very tough match in any case since he is having a great season. We'll see what happens.

Thanks all.

Rafa