Thursday, 29th of October

Rafa Nadal conserved his valuable energy in his Paris Masters opener on Wednesday as he required just 73 minutes for a 6-2, 6-4 second-round victory over Florent Serra.

He tore through the opening set in 27 minutes against an opponent who had taken five games in total from two previous meetings and in the second, he staved off a sole break point in the fourth game then broke for a 3-2 lead before Serra twice drove long to hand the Spaniard victory in 1hr 14min.

Coming off a first-round bye, Rafa produced a quick victory with 20 winners and three breaks of serve to go through for a next-round meeting with Frenchman Gael Monfils.

The Spanish top seed confesses he's running out of puff in the closing stages of a long season, and every easy victory provides a fraction more time to rest and recover.

Rafa owns eight titles from 2008 including Paris, Wimbledon and Olympic and still has this week, the Masters Cup in Shanghai as well as a late November Davis Cup final in Argentina to go before he can pause for perhaps a month before the 2009 start.

Rafa's victory was his 81st of the season against just 10 losses. The Spaniard, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko are already qualified for the eight-man year-end event in Shanghai.

The last three places are being decided this week in Paris as the regular season ends. 

Wednesday, October 29th

Rafa Nadal is set to start his 2008 Paris Master Series campaign this afternoon on Court 'Central' against French tennis player, Florent Serra. They are the third match of the day, with the first match scheduled to start at 11:00am (local time).

The pair have played in two occasions before: Cincinnati and the Australian Open. Both times Rafa came out on top and didn't even lose a set.

If he wins this match, he will be expected to meet another Frenchman, Gael Monfils.

DOUBLES UPDATE

Last night, Rafael and Juan Monaco, who are competing together for the first time since July 2005 at Bastad knocked out French wild cards Nicolas Mahut and Paul-Henri Mathieu with a 6-2, 6-4 win in 61 minutes.

The pair will next meet No. 3 seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.

Thursday, 30th of October

Coming off a first-round bye, Rafa produced a quick victory last night against Florent Serra, with 20 winners and three breaks of serve to go through for a next-round meeting with Frenchman Gael Monfils.

He will be back on court tonight –not before 7:45pm – to play for the third time against the French 16th seed. The pair have played in two previous occasions: In Rome 2006 and Monte Carlo 2005, with Rafa winning both times.

In doubles, Rafa and Juan Monaco also had a great run alter beating Bhupathi and Knowles 6-4 6-2.

RafaNadaLive: Hope you enjoy our latest exclusive video of Rafa at yesterday's Time Magazine Photo-shoot (which will be released in January next year) and another video of Rafa 'backstage' at yesterday's press conference (below). 

October 30th

World number one Rafael Nadal moved into the last eight of the Paris masters with a 6-3 6-2 victory against France's Gael Monfils.

But the win was not quite as straightforward as the scoreline suggests, with the Spaniard forced to save nine break points.

But Nadal broke Monfils three times, clinching victory on his first match point when the Frenchman hit a forehand wide.

"I'm not playing my best level, but I'm not playing badly," Nadal said. "If I can improve a bit for tomorrow and for Shanghai I think I can finish the year playing well.

Nadal will play sixth seed Nicolay Davydenko in the quarter-finals, after the Russian crushed 2005 champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-1 6-1.

Despite his place atop the rankings, the French and Wimbledon champion admits he feels people still regard long-time number one Roger Federer as tennis' top dog.

"Roger had four or five years with the number one, winning two, three Grand Slams a year," Nadal added. "So for that reason I think everybody says Federer is the best."

October 31st

Rafa Nadal will be playing this afternoon against Russian, Nikolay Davydenko for a spot in the semifinals of the Paris Master Series event. 

Their meeting is scheduled second on Court Central, with the first match expected to start at 2:00pm (local Paris time)

If that wasn't enough, Rafa will also be present in the doubles division of the tournament with his long time friend, Juan Monaco. The young pair are expected to step on court in the last session of the day to play against Coetzee and Moodie on court No.1.

Vamos Rafa!

RafaNadaLive: Hope you enjoy our latest exclusive video of Rafa at the Time Magazine Photo-shoot (which will be released in January next year).

28th of October

Alongside his good friend the Argentine Juan Monaco, the world number one, Rafa Nadal beat the locals Nicolas Mahut and Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4 Tuesday, in the first round of the doubles tournament in Paris.

Their next doubles oponents will be Bhupathi and Knowles (The No. 3 seeds).

In other news, Rafa admitted Tuesday that he is at the limit of his own strength as he approaches the end of the tennis season, in which he is still to tackle the challenges of winning his first-ever Masters Cup and the final of the Davis Cup

'I am a little bit at the limit, I am a bit short of strength,' Rafa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Spaniard was set to make his debut Wednesday at the Paris Masters - the season's last Masters Series tournament - against Frenchman Florent Serra.

'We are in a very bad state,' Rafa's uncle and coach Toni Nadal told dpa.

'It is the last effort, I hope to be able to get to the rest of it better prepared,' the tennis player said.

Rafa, 22, noted that he feels worse than he did precisely 12 months earlier.

Following a total of 90 matches - with 80 wins and 10 defeats - Rafa can be proud of a season in which he lifted eight trophies including those at the French Open and Wimbledon, and the Olympic gold medal in Beijing.

28th of October

Rafa Nadal prepares to play his second round match of the Paris Tennis Masters after a day of fun in the company of journalists from French newspaper 'L'Equipe'.

At the moment, the only thing to report is the last minute change in Rafa’s side of the draw, where he was initially expected to play Michael Llodra. However, the French player has had to pull out of the tournament due to a knee injury and therefore Guillermo Cañas will take over his place in the draw.

Cañas will play his first round match today against Frenchman Florent Serra and the winner will have to face Rafa in the next round.

Monfils, Wawrinka, Davydenko, Del Potro or Nalbandián, are all potential opponents in his side of the draw.

October 27th

Rafa Nadal has arrived in France to play the Paris Master Series tournament, which starts this Monday.

Before he jumps on court though, he will pay a visit to "L'Equipe", one of the most prestigious sport newspapers in the world.

He wants to learn a bit about their day-to-day work and how journalists create sport news…Something similar to what Roger Federer did back when he was world No.1.

He also plans on watching the Spanish league match between Real Madrid and Athetic Bilbao at L'Equipe’s premises.

He will probably be back on court this Tuesday and will play the winner of the first round match between Michael Llodra and a qualifier.

Vamos Rafa!

October 27th

Rafa will be training this morning at 8:00am (Paris Local time) at the Paris Master Series center court.

Once he's done practicing, he will head over to a press conference at 11:30 at the tournament's media room. 

He will then have a break and then go back to training at 12:00pm. (At this stage it's unknown in which court he will be practicing).

Later in the afternoon he will go back to the hotel where he's planning to relax a bit and get ready for his visit to L'Equipe at 7:30pm.

NOTE: Rafa has left a post in his blog in the memory of his friend Federico Luzzi who passed away 2 days ago. 

25th of October

Friday's draw for the BNP Paribas Masters threw up some tantalising ties, as befits a tournament featuring almost all of the world's top players. With the 16 seeds all receiving a bye in the first round, much of the focus was on theoretical match-ups later in the tournament, with plenty of possible blockbusters in the offing as early as the third round.

World No1 and last year's runner-up Rafa Nadal finds himself in a quarter of the draw dominated by qualifiers – of the six players looking to secure a spot in the main tournament over the weekend, five are in the Majorcan's section. Rafa is slated to face Michaël Llodra in the second round, with either 2004 champion and two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin or the surging Gaël Monfils likely next up.

From bnpparibasmasters.org

LAST NIGHT'S AWARD CEREMONY RE-CAP

The 2008 Prince of Asturias Awards ceremony has taken place in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain.

Dubbed the “Spanish Nobel prize”, the awards are handed out by Crown Prince Felipe to individuals or organisations from around the world for their achievements in the fields of sciences, humanities or public affairs.

Rafa Nadal of Spain received this year’s Award for Sports and the Prince of Asturias for Concord went to Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. She spent more than six years as a FARC hostage in the Colombian jungle.

Ingrid shared a beautiful memory of her "listening to the radio for years following Rafa's matches". She "could only hear the ball as he played and sometimes got to hear his voice'.

"Being able to share this night with him face to face is a beautiful testament to life"

In the photo you can see Rafa talking with Ingrid at the awards ceremony last night.