Hello Everyone, 

I'm writing this blog in the morning before going to the tournament for a training station. I've got a court booked at 12pm so I'm leaving the hotel in about 10 minutes. (Right now it's 10:30am).

Last night it was too late for me to write something to long, hope you guys understand, I'm sorry for not doing it then. 

So, last night's match was great, I felt really good on the court and I've never had such a confotable debut at this tournament since I started playing here. That is absolutely great for me for the following two reasons: One, I found myself playing well and that gives you a lot of confidence, and two, I think it is important that I didn't get to play the last two tournaments of the year.  

Ok everyone, I have to run, need to get to my training session on time.  

Hugs to everyone! Rafa 

Hi all, I will be blogging from Melbourne here on my site and also for the Herald Sun in Australia and the times-on-line in the UK.

Thanks

Just wanted to let all my English speaking fans that I have resumed practice a couple of weeks ago and things are going well.

On Friday Dec. 12th I am having the year end dinner, Christmas dinner, with my team. They will all come to Manacor and we will celebrate a great 08 season.

On Monday morning I will practice and then fly late in the afternoon to Madrid since there is a dinner offered by MARCA with the King of Spain and some other sportsmen. This is to close the festivities of the newspaper's 70th anniversary.

On Tuesday we are doing the match against Malaria and hopefully the stadium will be full. We are very excited about this again.

Thanks to all.

Rafa

I want to send a message of congratulations to Ivan Ljubicic and his wife Aida for the birth of Leonardo. 

Take care and see you in Melbourne!!!

Rafa

Dear English speaking fans,

My team has received some e-mails from you about the information in English. Well I am sorry for this and I have asked them to try to have you more updated. I am told that they are trying to have the Tennis Channel get interested in broadcasting the Malaria gig I am doing with Casillas. We will keep you posted on this.  

Many thanks

Just a short note to congratulate Nenad Zimonjic and his wife Mina for the birth of their twins Leon and Luna today. Congratulations and enjoy !!! 

Thursday, November 21st

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to send a message of encouragement to my team-mates who are currently in Mar del Plata playing the Davis Cup.  You all know how much I would have liked to be there with them to honour Spain’s colours but unfortunately that is not the case.

I’ve been on the phone with them these last few days and I know they are very excited to play. They have no pressure what so ever and that is always good.

We have a very competitive team and we know they will give their everything to play the best they can. We have to trust them and support them.

Best of luck to them and Vamos España!

WE CAN DO IT!!!

Rafa

What is Rafa up to today? He will attend a few press conferences at radio stations late afternoon Spanish time.

I’d like to take a minute to send my condolences and a big hug to the family of Federico Luzzi. He will be buried today after passing away 2 days ago. To me, it was quite difficult to believe the news, I knew it wasn’t a joke but at the same time I didn’t want to believe it was true.

I got to train with Federico a few times and I remember him as a great person, fun to be with and very Italian. All of us who are here in Paris have been talking about it and all of us are in shock and very upset.

One of us is gone, someone who was part of our tennis family.

Federico, wherever you are, I hope you're resting in peace. 

Rafa

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