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