April 30, 2009

Rafa Nadal beat Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-1 6-0 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters.

The Spanish top seed will now play his compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the last eight after the number six seed saw off Richard Gasquet of France 7-5 6-4.

In the late match on Stadio Pietrangeli, the one-sided scoreline reflected Rafa's performance but failed to give credit to Soderling's showing.

The Swede played some excellent tennis at times, especially during the first set, but Rafa was simply that much better in every respect.

Soderling started brightly, taking the first game of the match with a combination of crisp ground strokes and powerful serves but it proved to be his only return of the night.

From then on, despite a brave fight, Soderling failed to win another game, and Nadal powered to 12 straight games to take the match and send out a message to the seven remaining players in the tournament.

Vamos Rafa!

April 30, 2009

Rafa Nadal eased into the third round of the Rome Masters Series tournament yesterday as he ended the hopes of his friend and home favourite, Andreas Seppi.

The Italian put in a decent display and was competitive for long spells, but still could not seriously trouble Rafa as he scored a 6-2, 6-3 victory in an hour and 19 minutes of play.

“To be honest, I feel kind of bad about beating Seppi today because he’s such a nice guy," said Rafa at a press conference after the match.

Then he continued, "I'm coming here with big motivation, because Rome is a very big tournament.  It's impossible to win every year.  That's normal [to] lose last year. I'm going to try my best to have a good result here. I start[ed] well today, so that's very good news”.  

In today’s third round match, Rafa will play Swedish Robin SODERLING, who beat Victor CRIVOI in three sets: 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-1 in the second round of the Italian event.

“I will try my best tomorrow to have good match against Soderling," said the World No.1, who leads Robin 2-0 in the head-to-head department.

Rafa crushed Soderling in the opening round of the 2006 French Open before a far more memorable and controversial encounter one year later in the Wimbledon third round which ended in five sets, 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5.

TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAY

STADIO PIETRANGELI

Starting At: 1:00 PM

Fernando GONZALEZ (CHI) vs Jurgen MELZER (AUT)

Tommy ROBREDO (ESP) vs Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB)

Radek STEPANEK (CZE) vs Roger FEDERER (SUI)

Starting at 8:30 PM

Rafael NADAL (ESP) vs Robin SODERLING (SWE) 

Vamos Rafa!

29 of April, 2009

THE VOTES ARE IN – TIME MAGAZINE REVEALS THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2008

TIME Magazine, one of the world’s most recognized publications has revealed today the top 100 most influential personalities of the past year.  

Amongst the proud nominees were famous thinkers, artists, leaders and revolutionaries from all over the world who - in one way or another - have had an impact in today’s society.

This week’s issue (which will be on the stands on Friday, May 1) also features our one and only, Rafa Nadal. The No.1 tennis player in the world was voted 60th overall, beating sporting legends such as Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (72nd), Tiger woods (106th), and Alex Rodriguez (134th).

NBA star Kobe Bryant and Filipino pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao were the only 2 athletes to beat Rafa, coming 9th and 22nd respectively.

"Moot", a 21-year-old college student and founder of online community 4chan.org, emerged as this year’s most influential person in the world, beating heavyweights such as US President Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama.

Congratulations Rafa!

-------------------------------

RAFA NADAL VS ANDREAS SEPPI

Rafa Nadal will make his debut today at the ATP Masters Series 1000 in Rome against local Andreas Seppi, who defeated American Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Italian event yesterday.

Seppi, ranked 37th in the world, has met Rafa a total of three times in his career and is currently standing 1-2 against the World No.1.

He defeated Rafa last year in Rotterdam (on hard courts) and Rafa won the previous matches at Davis Cup in Torre del Greco (Italy, 2005) and Santander (2006); both matches were held on clay.

TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAY

STADIO PIETRANGELI

1:00 PM - Andy Murray vs Juan Monaco

followed by - Ivo Karlovic vs Roger Federer

followed by - Rafael Nadal vs Andreas Seppi

Vamos Rafa!

April 29, 2009

Rafa Nadal has booked a place in the third round of the Rome Masters Series 1000 tournament after a convincing win over Andreas Seppi, in an hour and 20 minutes of play.

The Spanish ace looked comfortable throughout his first match on the Roman clay as he picked up points with ease against his Italian opponent. It didn't take long for the 22-year-old to claim a 6-2 6-3 victory, as he dominated the match from the first serve and rarely loosened his grip to allow Seppi in.

'El Matador', as he is famously known, displayed a combination of power, skill, and accuracy to back-up a great gameplan that saw his opponent be stretched all over the court in chase of angled shots.

The World No.1 one will next play Swedish Robin SODERLING, who beat Victor CRIVOI in three sets: 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-1 and who he’s played against twice before. 

• The first time they faced each other was at the 2006 Roland Garros first round, which Rafa won comfortably in straight sets: 6-2 7-5 6-1.
• The second time around Soderling put up a fight before going down in 5 sets: 6-4 6-4 6-7(7) 4-6 7-5 at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships.

Vamos Rafa!

---------------------------------------

THE VOTES ARE IN – TIME MAGAZINE REVEALS THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2008

TIME Magazine, one of the world’s most recognized publications has revealed today the top 100 most influential personalities of the past year.  

Amongst the proud nominees were famous thinkers, artists, leaders and revolutionaries from all over the world who - in one way or another - have had an impact in today’s society.

This week’s issue (which will be on the stands on Friday, May 1) also features our one and only, Rafa Nadal. The No.1 tennis player in the world was voted 60th overall, beating sporting legends such as Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (72nd), Tiger woods (106th), and Alex Rodriguez (134th).

NBA star Kobe Bryant and Filipino pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao were the only 2 athletes to beat Rafa, coming 9th and 22nd respectively.

"Moot", a 21-year-old college student and founder of online community 4chan.org, emerged as this year’s most influential person in the world, beating heavyweights such as US President Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama.

Congratulations Rafa!

Photo: Rafa at the Kids Village yesterday.

April 28, 2009

After winning his first two tournaments of the claycourt season at the Masters Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Rafa Nadal enters the Masters Rome this week in an attempt to revenge last year’s second-round loss (due to severe foot blisters) to countryman and former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.

He has won the title here in 2005, 2006, and 2007 and has a good chance to regain the trophy in 2009.

Here is a quick look at an interview Rafa did yesterday in Rome: (Rafa's exact words)

Q. How do you feel physically at the moment with the weeks you've had?

RAFAEL: Yeah, well, no problem. Perfect.

Q. Now you have won for the fifth time Monte Carlo, and after Barcelona. How much are you disappointed to have not won here on last year? Not so special?

RAFAEL: No, no. I'm very happy to have three titles here. Not disappointed to don't have the title last year, no? The normal thing always is don't win, so the normal thing is lose. The unusual is win five Monte Carlos in a row and five Barcelonas in a row. For me, that's more than a dream. That's totally unbelievable for me, and I never expect something like this. The normal thing is well, yeah, is more usual lose in first round in Rome than win three Romes in a row.

Q. Comparing the current situation of pro men's tennis to some years ago, there are less clay court specialists than maybe three or five years ago. Who do you think at the moment is the most dangerous competitor for you on clay?

RAFAEL NADAL: The more dangerous competitor is every day the opponent. You know, that's the thing, and I know how tough is win every match. When I go on court, I have a lot of respect for every player, no? So when I go on court, before the match I always think I can lose and I can win. I have to accept both things, so I go on court and try my best every day and respect the opponent. If you are thinking I gonna say, I don't know, Federer or Djokovic or Murray, everybody is very good, sure. They are the No. 2, 3, and 4, but every player can play really good on every surface.I think right now, because every year for last years we have less tournaments on clay. The best players of the world well, we gonna change the thing, no? Because in that moment, most of the tournaments of the world are hard, indoor, or... Yeah, everybody plays good in every surface, no? The clay court players can play very well in the rest of the surfaces, and the hard court players can play very well on clay because the surface is different, but not like before. It's not really, really fast the hard, and the and the clay is not really slow.

ROME MASTERS SERIES OFFICIAL DRAW

If there are no surprises, these could be Rafa’s opponents for the next week:

Second Round: He will have to play the winner of the match between Italy’s Andreas Seppi or American, Sam Querrey on Wednesday.

Third round: James Blake or  Robin Soderling

Quarterfinal: Ernest Gulbis, Igor Andreev, Fernando Verdasco. Richard Gasquet, Nicolas Almagro or Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

Semifinal: Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko or Fernando Gonzalez.

Vamos Rafa!

Photos: Special thanks to Manuel "Queima" Queimadelos

April 26, 2009

Ace Spanish tennis star Rafa Nadal, has once again proved that he is the undeniable king of the Barcelona Tournament after successfully beating his Spanish compatriot and friend David Ferrer in straight sets by 6-2, 7-5 in today’s final.

“I never imagined anything like this. To win again here in Barcelona, in my home club and at such an important tournament is incredible.”

“This has been my best match of the year so far on clay,” said Rafa after the match. “David played very well and was very aggressive. It was hard to take control of the match and I was lucky that the second set didn’t slip away from me.”

As to David, he thought “The second set was very open. My serve wasn’t great and I lacked a little spark but I’ll leave here happy and with good memories because I know I’m playing good tennis and on a regular basis.”

"Rafa is playing even more aggressively this year," said Ferrer. "He has a great rhythm right from the start and it’s very difficult to beat him."

Rafael crushed the No.13 player in world in just over an hour and 45 minutes of play to become the first player to win the clay court tournament for the fifth successive time. The World No.1 won the match by playing some competitive tennis and will take home with him the precious ‘Conde de Godó’ trophy, together with the satisfaction of achieving an amazing feat.

The victory comes on the back of Rafa securing five consecutive Monte Carlo titles a week ago as the 22-year-old's clay dominance shows no signs of slowing ahead of the French Open and a possible fifth there as well.

THE MATCH

The top seed did suffer a minor blemish as he lost his first three service games of the week, the second set being more competitive as the first four games went against the server.

But once he gathered himself together, the mighty Rafa finally secured a break for 6-5 and served out victory in one and three quarter hours on his second match point.

Rafa will have no time to celebrate as he heads directly for the Rome Masters which begins on Monday. A year ago, a patently exhausted Nadal lost in his opening second round match to Juan Carlos Ferrero.

ROME MASTERS SERIES OFFICIAL DRAW

On Saturday, the official draw ceremony for the Masters Series tournament in Rome took place and if there are no surprises, these could be Rafa’s opponents for the next week:

First round: Bye

Second Round: He will have to play the winner of the match between Italy’s Andreas Seppi or American, Sam Querrey.

Third round: James Blake or  Robin Soderling

Quarterfinal: Ernest Gulbis, Igor Andreev, Fernando Verdasco. Richard Gasquet, Nicolas Almagro or Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

Semifinal: Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko or Fernando Gonzalez.

Vamos Rafa!

Photos: Special thanks to Manuel "Queima" Queimadelos

April 26, 2009

Rafa Nadal, ‘The King of Clay’ will attempt to win his fifth straight Barcelona Open title this afternoon when he meets his friend and compatriot, David Ferrer in a repeat of last year's final.

“I value a lot what is happening to me right now. I know how difficult it is to be in a final five times in a row, and the fact that it is in a tournament like this means a lot to me”, said the World No.1 at a press conference as he continued his domination on clay with a straight-set victory (6-3 6-2) over Nikolay Davydenko in yesterday’s semifinals.

Rafa had to work for the first set and saved three break points before breaking the Davydenko serve midway through.

A second break secured the set and the Spaniard raced into a 4-1 lead in the next, although once again faced three break points in the fifth game, before sealing victory in one hour and 46 minutes.

"It wasn't a great performance but I didn't make too many errors," admitted the 22-year-old. "It was a hard match, even if that is not necessarily reflected in the result.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, it's an excellent start to the clay season"…"I'm enjoying the best moment of my career this past year and I have to appreciate that and feel happy about it."

HEAD-TO-HEAD AGAINST FERRER

The pair have played a total of 9 times before, with the 'Spanish Bull' winning 6 of those matches. The last time they played each other was precisely at this same event, in the same round, and with a 6-1 4-6 6-1, result in favour of Nadal.

Last time Ferrer beat Rafa was in the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win in round-robin play.

“[Playing] against David is always difficult. I’ve won and I’ve lost [in the past] against him. He’s a top level player and I know that in order to win, I have to play my best tennis,” said Rafael about his opponent.

David on the other hand, was a bit more pessimistic about the encounter "Rafa is the World No. 1 and the best on clay, it's very difficult to beat him… I'll try to play good tennis, if not I'm dead, but I'm not thinking about whether or not I'll beat him, I go on the court to play as well as possible."

Rafa’s statistics on clay continue to amaze. The Mallorcan has won his past 24 matches on the surface, with his last loss coming to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome last year, and has a staggering 141-4 match record on clay since 2005.

The left-hander is chasing his 24th clay-court title and his 35th tour-level trophy (34-9 lifetime) on all surfaces. Last week he claimed his 14th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 shield on clay at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he has won each year since 2005.

ORDER OF PLAY

Today’s Conde de Godó final will be played at the ‘Real Club de Tenis de Barcelona’ Stadium at 4:00pm (local time).

Vamos Rafa!

25th of April

Rafa Nadal remains on course for a record fifth straight Barcelona Open title after a comfortable third-round win over Belgium’s Christophe Rochus in straight sets, 6-2 6-0 and an unexpected walkover into the last four when his quarterfinal opponent, David Nalbandian was forced to withdraw with a hip injury.

“I feel bad for him actually, I knew he had something bothering him and I just hope he gets better soon”, said Rafa.

Then he continued, “It's not nice to reach the semi-finals like this, but I have to be positive. I'm in the semis of Barcelona and that's always a good thing. I will try to do the best I can”.

Being the hard worker that he is, Rafa ‘The King of clay’ Nadal, took advantage of the additional day granted to have an “intense training session’ with his coach and he hopes it would be enough to help him through today’s semifinal match against Nikolay Davydenko, the number 3 seed, ranked 8th in the World.

Rafa leads Davydenko 3-2 in their head-to-head encounters and even though neither of Davydenko’s wins have been on clay, their first match on the dirt was an extremely close: Rafa won 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-4 in Rome in 2007.

The second time however (at last year’s Monte-Carlo Masters Series), Rafa was much more dominant as he cruised past the Russian in straight sets: 6-3, 6-2.

While all the statistics favor Rafa, Davydenko remains optimistic and has joked about beating the number one. "It's a secret: if I tell the press, he will read it”, then he continued on a more serious tone, “The odds are 100 per cent [in favour of] Rafa. You never know about tomorrow, but I’m not going to worry about it now. I’m going to relax and enjoy my life.

TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAY

Rafa is scheduled to play second on Center Court at 1:30pm (local time)

Vamos Rafa!

25th of April, 2009

Rafa Nadal eased past Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-2 at the Barcelona Open today to claim his 24th consecutive clay-court win at this event and book a meeting in the final with the winner of the match between David Ferrer and Fernando Gonzales.

The top-ranked, clay-court-specialist took an hour and 46 minutes to send the World No.8 player packing and continue his quest for a fifth straight Godo trophy in the tournament where he’s become a legend. And why wouldn’t he be? He has an outstanding141-4 match record on clay courts since 2005 and is 24-1 lifetime in clay-court finals.

THE MATCH

Davydenko had three break points on the Spanish top seed's serve early in the match but failed to capitalise and Rafa found his range on the clay to break twice and take the opening set.

Davydenko again failed to convert chances to break back after losing his serve in the second set and Rafa sealed victory with a thumping backhand on his first match point.

Vamos Rafa!

April 24, 2009

Top seed and defending champion Rafa Nadal cruised past Christophe Rochus of Belgium in straight sets, 6-2 6-0 yesterday at the Barcelona Open third round, and remains on course for his fifth straight title.

The "King of Clay" extended his unrivalled supremacy on the surface of the Catalan capital after only 56 minutes of play and set up a quarterfinal meeting against David Nalbandian. However, shortly after his match, he discovered he had been given a walkover.

David Nalbandian pulled out of his quarterfinal match at the Barcelona Open due to a hip injury, the tournament doctor said on Thursday.

"I've never played Nalbandian on clay, this would have been a good challenge," said Rafa when he was told the news "It's a pity that this had to happen to him."

"I don't think it's an disadvantage for me not to play tomorrow. I will have train tomorrow a bit more intensively than usual and that's it. It's not nice to reach the semifinals like this, but I have to be positive. I'm in the semis of Barcelona and that's always a good thing," Rafa was quoted as saying by news agency Europa Press.

In the semis, Rafa will face the winner of the match between Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Check, Radek Stepanek.

MATCH AGAINST ROCHUS

The flamboyant left-hander broke in the third game with a cross-court forehand and he cruised through the second with some exquisitely precise strokes to win in under an hour.

Rafa's emphatic win was his 23rd in succession on clay and improved a phenomenal record on the surface since 2005 to 140 wins and just four defeats.

Vamos Rafa!