January 2012
143 posts
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RafaLint: December 31st
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Looks like Team Cuteness will not be defending their Doha title. Marc! will try to defend his half of it with Albert Ramos: doubles draw.
Also, in some really nice news, the ATP will be live streaming Doha for free. Check out their...
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Happy New Year!
Rafa shared a bit of his New Year’s Eve with is via Facebook. First, a video of him eating his grapes. Why was Rafa eating grapes? Here’s the info. Now the question is, was he wearing new red undies too?
Next, enjoying a Coldplay concert with Tsonga and Monfils. So loving the smiles.
Original Article
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Abu Dhabi: 3rd place playoff videos
Fun points:
Posted by PartidoaPartido.
Start of the match:
Posted by fuocoso271.
Highlights:
Posted by bojansvitac.
Last bit of the match and post-match interviews:
Posted by vamosrafelnadal.
Original Article
December 2011
48 posts
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Abu Dhabi: 3rd place playoff photos
I have no idea what to call this…it’s not a round-robin (as I was forced to indicate in the results), but it’s not a semi/quarter/yadda. So, it’s the 3rd place playoff. Or, photos thereof.
[gallery link=”file”]
Photos by MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images and REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
Original Article
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Doha: The draw
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It’s almost time for some real 2012 tennis to start for Rafa. Case in point, the Doha draw is out. First up for Rafa will be Philipp Kohlschreiber. They’ve had some tricky matches in the past, but Rafa leads the head-to-head...
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Abu Dhabi: Good-bye 2011
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Rafa/Roger…Fedal…the history….yadda. It was an exhibition, not an epic match today between the two in Abu Dhabi. Fed started out off his game, looking as sleepy as I felt, and not measuring his shots well. It...
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RafaLint: December 30th
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Nadal loses to Ferrer in the semi-finals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championships by Reem Abulleil (sport360.com) has some great quotes from the presser:
“The positive thing is that I spent over an hour on court against a player who...
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Abu Dhabi: Semifinal videos
Post match interviews from both players via RTVE.
Highlights:
More available on rafanadalpartidoapartido.com.
Another highlight reel from bojansvitac:
Original Article
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Abu Dhabi: Semifinal photos
Photos from Rafa’s match against Ferrer.
[gallery link=”file”]
Photos by MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images and REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
Original Article
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Abu Dhabi: You know, it's not actually 2012 yet...
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To start off his 2012 season while it’s still 2011, Rafa played David Ferrer in the Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament today. It was a great start to the season….for Daveeed. He grooved to a 5-0 lead before Rafa managed to get...
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Ranty RafaLint: December 29th
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Okay. I’ve spent the day grumpy and feel a need to rant just a little bit more than I’ve already done on twitter.
[engageRantyMode]
I know people make mistakes. I make many mistakes a day. Many. Some huge. Some small. Hell, there...
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Rafa motivated to exceed Borg's Roland Garros...
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There’s an interview with Rafa at as.com today: Me motiva poder superar a Borg en Roland Garros (by Pedro Fullana). Bits that interested me from the mangle:
When it was mentioned that he made 10 finals in 2011 (his...
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Abu Dhabi: Hello 2012 tennis season
Yes, it’s still 2011, but the 2012 tennis season is upon us thanks to the Abu Dhabi exhibition. Or own Nida is there - keep checking out her tweets and photo stream as she uploads!
Here’s a practice video from reemabulleil:
Rafa did a presser today and quotes are already showing up in articles. I’m sure there will be more tonight, but let’s start this thing:
Rafael...
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RafaLint: December 28th
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Not a lot to post since the most exciting thing (airport footage!) happened much earlier. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to attempt to get up early (5am!) to watch Daveeed play…anyone plan on watching?
Articles:
Novak...
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Vídeo: Fundación Rafa Nadal event
A video wrap-up of one of the recent fundraiser events for Rafa’s foundation.
Posted by invest4children.
Original Article
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Abu Dhabi: And, he's off!
As usual, iB3 was there to film and talk to Rafa as he took an early flight to Abu Dhabi.(mangle):
The always helpful @davidjnadal tweeted some of the content of the interview.
@IB3noticies ha estado esta mañana con @RafaelNadal en el aeropuerto de Palma. El mallorquín viaja a Abu Dabhi. Aquí van algunas palabras:
Entrevista de @elisabethmoll a @RafaelNadal para Ib3: “Volveré a...
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RafaLint: December 27th
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I suppose this article contains the big news of the day: Toni Nadal: “No estamos pendientes de Djokovic” by Alejandro Delmás (as.com). Here’s the mangle. In it, Toni confirms that Rafa is going to Abu Dhabi, but that not playing...
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RafaLint: December 26th
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I was trying to wait to post this until the last of my DC photos uploaded…but I need some sleep. So, fingers crossed that the last 30 or so make it up. All three days of the Davis Cup final can be found here.
Articles:
Time out Dubai has...
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Interview: Too predictable
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There’s a new interview with Rafa at elpais.com. Visiting Rafa in his hometown, Juan Jose Mateo talks to him about his year, what it was lacking, what he needs to do to move forward, and the future of Davis Cup. Here’s the mangle. I...
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Video: Juntos por la Integración
This is a video that was shown during the big fundraiser for Rafa’s foundation.
Juntos por la Integración “Fundación Rafa Nadal” from JuanKr Zorrilla on Vimeo.
El video que se proyecto en la cena de gala de la Fundación Nadal el día 14/12/2011 en Barcelona.
It’s also a good reminder during a season that can get greedy that there are many ways of giving and...
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Prepping for 2012
The latest video from the iB3 shows Rafa practicing to prep for 2012. (mangle)
Original Article
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RafaLint: December 23rd
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Ask a tennis player a question, and KIA will help you get an answer and a chance to win a t-shirt signed by Rafa! Submit your question.
Articles:
Quely would like to wish us a Merry Christmas and helped us acheive that by posting a photo of...
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RafaLint: December 22nd
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Waaaa! I want this! But shipping costs more than the darn book. Hope it will eventually be available elsewhere. There’s a listing on Amazon.it, but it says the book isn’t shipping yet. Check out the photographer’s online...
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RafaLint: December 21st
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Articles:
Rafa and Julio are on the cover of Hola magazine. (mangle)
Si Señores - Tignor’s article about the Rafa/DelPo match from the Davis Cup finals.
Acte benèfic de la Fundación Nadal al RCTB from a few days ago (thanks, Beebs)....
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Marca claiming Rafa may miss Abu Dhabi
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Thanks to Inés, we have the following article from the print version of Marca. I must say: Marca has gotten things wrong in the past - they’ve announced Rafa wasn’t playing tournaments that he went on to play. So, like most things...
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RafaLint: December 20th
It’s coming…it’s not too far away… KIA promo for the AO:
Articles:
Rafa Nadal pasa por Vitoria para tratar sus maltrechas rodillas (mangle). Makes sense - Rafa mentioned he was going to have his knees looked at after DC, but I don’t know how reliable the source is.
Videos:
iB3 report on Rafa selling his shares in Real Mallorca.
Photos:
Oh. Hi, Rafa! Looking a...
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RafaLint: December 19th
Articles:
Rafa’s 7th consecutive Monte-Carlo and 6th Roland Garros wins came in #4 on the ATP list of top acheivements of 2011.
And his match against Isner came in #5 in the ATP list of best slam/DC matches of the year. #3 on the list is Rafa’s match against Del Potro in the DC final.
Look who are tied in percentage for 2nd serve points won in their career. And who leads the 1st and...
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DC: Flashback to 2004
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Inés has been digging around in the TVE archives and tweeted links to three videos from the 2004 Spanish Davis Cup victory in Sevilla.
Copa Davis 2004: Sevilla, la cumbre del tenis
Copa Davis 2004: entrevistas a los campeones
Copa Davis...
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RafaLint: December 17th
Gaudio - valid source or not? This article (mangle) was making the twitter rounds yesterday (first saw it tweeted by @Rafael_Plaza). In it, Gastón Gaudio claims that Rafa was so pissed at losing to him in 2005, that he broke his rackets in the locker room. Many twitter folks doubted Gaudio’s reliabilty - saying he and Rafa had a history. I admit to full ignorance of any of that....
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Site News: Bye-bye community
Hey guys. I’m going to close down the Community section of the site. The people using it the most are spammers and I get tired of deleting them and their accounts. For those who registered via it and uploaded an avatar, I’m not sure what this will mean for you. If you lose your avatar, you can always switch to a universal Gravatar. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.
...
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Photos: Rafa presents awards to Julio Iglesias
Today in Madrid, Rafa presented Julio Iglesias an award for the artist who has sold the most records in Spain and the Latino Artist Award for the most albums sold. Here are some photos.
[gallery link=”file”]
Photos by JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images, REUTERS/Juan Medina, and AP Photo/Paul White
Original Article
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Foundation gala TV coverage
rtv report on the foundation gala (thanks, Inés):
Original Article
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RafaLint: December 15th
tve coverage of the events for Rafa’s Foundation:
(Thanks, Inés)
Articles:
Davis Cup - Costa quits Spain’s Davis Cup team
Rafa’s going to be handing an award to Julio Iglesias (thanks, Beebs)
Videos:
tbluebird has some DC videos
Photos:
Photo from tennis clinic today for Rafa’s Foundation.
Dutchgirl has posted her photos from Day 1 of the Davis Cup
Lastly, some...
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La tasca solidària de Rafel Nadal
An iB3 report on yesterday’s event for Rafa’s foundation (mangle):
Original Article
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RafaLint: December 14th
Looks like tomorrow will be a busy day for Rafa. There is a series of events planned to promote/benefit his foundation: Juntos por la Integracion (mangle). There’s also more information on Rafa’s Foundation site (mangle).
Articles:
“Rafa” The Book: Understanding Uncle Toni’s Profound Influence by The Fan Child
The Worst Matches of 2011 by Pete Bodo. Rafa’s...
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Integration and Sport
Rafa let us know via Facebook that he visited a project his foundation supports in Barcelona. (Click through on the links for the photo.)
English:
Tomorrow I’ll have a dinner of my charity foundation, today I went to visit one of the projects that we sponsor (Children’s Villages) Paz Vega, Freddie Highmore and Nastassja Kinski thanks for your interest about my project:)
Spanish:
...
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RafaLint: December 14th
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A long weekend in NY and I’m even further behind - sorry! BTW, those waiting on a DC version of the calendar? It might be a while…I haven’t even had a chance to start sorting through photos yet.
Need to fill some time before...
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2011 Davis Cup Finals in Seville: More Than I...
I had some pretty high expectations for my trip to Spain to see Rafa and The Armada play 2011 David Cup Finals against Argentina… amazingly, all of them were exceeded. I had only 2 goals for this tennis adventure: (1) see Rafa play on clay (2) get a bit of clay to bring home. Not too much to hope for I thought… What I experienced was so much more!
I knew it would be worth it - never mind...
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Nadal determined to recover "mental strength" in...
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Here’s an interview with Sebastian Fest that has some good Rafa quotes: Nadal determined to recover “mental strength” in 2012.
A few excerpts:
‘I am looking forward to rising above the past few months, which were not...
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Back to practice
First, Rafa let us know he was back at work. Then, the iB3 showed up to give us evidence in video form:
@davidjnadal tweeted about the interview. Here are his tweets and then a mangle:
@RafaelNadal a @joanmartimir para @IB3noticies: “La temporada ha sido bastante buena, pero evidentemente no ha sido perfecta”
“Pero si en una temprada ganas la Davis, Roland Garros,Montecarlo,...
Davis Cup 2011 Final Day 1
goodfacerafa:
The Argie team was always very serious.
Listening to the Spanish national emblem.
The red bench.
The blue bench.
Cheering or getting pissed at Ferru?
Photos are mine.
Davis Cup 2011 Final Day 3
goodfacerafa:
Getting ready…
70% of my DC pix look like this…
Spitting- a clay court ritual!
Everyone is looking away? Incredible!
Which one do you like? A rhetorical question.
One is grooming his hair while one is fixing his sarong.
Tres adorbz!
Making a speech with a funny voice!
Rafa and Marcel with their medals.
Spot the Rafa (and Maribel!)
Boys and their big...
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RafaLint: December 7th
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Here’s a huge backlog of DCLint. You guys have probably already seen all of this, but I feel compelled…
(Um, I did all the videos first and then kind of lost steam…sorry. I still have a massive sleep deficit to recover....
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DC: Happy dancing Spaniards, take two
Davis Cup finals – 2011
In the midst of the wonderful afterglow I had from attending the Davis Cup quarterfinals, I started thinking about going to the semis in Cordoba. That didn’t work out and I was sad. The results of the semis, however made me happy because they meant the final would be played in Spain and would be Spain vs. Argentina – teams with players on my “like to watch” checklist....
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DC: Spain wins again!
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They did it! Again! And it was amazing! Again! And there was bouncing! And a wee, wee bit of dancing. And confetti from a blower (that, sadly, Rafa wasn’t interested in this year). And it was all good.
The sane way of saying...