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