I have no idea what he’s saying, but he’s sure looking tan while saying it:
Rafa Nadal, Presidente de Honor de Lo que de verdad importa en Palma de Mallorca, no pudo estar presente en el congreso pero quiso dejarnos a todos unas palabras…
Which mangles to: “Rafa Nadal, Honorary President of What really matters in Palma de Mallorca, could not be present at the conference but would leave us all a few words …”
Articles:
- Another El Mundo Q&A (mangle)
- Report Card: Grading the Pros on January - by Tom Perrotta (tennis.com)
- Nadal has tools, fortitude to beat Djokovic; more Aussie thoughts - by Bruce Jenkins (si.com)
- Rafa Nadal’s performance contributed to one of the grand slam final classics - by Courtney Walsh (The Australian)
- ¡Qué grande es nuestro deporte, EL TENIS! - by Emilio Sanchez Vicario (mangle)
- Coming Soon: Nadal, the Djokovic slayer - by Swati Kothari (ndtv.com)
And @genny_ss would like to share this blog post - Sr. D. Rafael Nadal - and her translation:
MR. RAFAEL NADAL (by Amalio Moratalla)
Of course I will not say anything different from what you have read or heard about our best player and perhaps best athlete of all time. But my body, the justice and the reason ask me to do it. We can all the adjetives we want to Rafa. There is plenty of room for them and many are not enough. His attitude, personality and mood admit all of them, but in the case of Rafael Nadal, there’s more. Much more, I think. He is a full and honest athlete.
This is golden truth. After nearly six hours of play in the final in Melbourne in front of the ‘tennis machine’, Novak Djokovic, I failed to annotate in my book a single detail to reproach to our player. An example of a fight for a crown without disrespecting the crowd, the opponent, tennis and sport! What satisfaction!
Those of us, who spent many hours watching football matches and their circumstances because of duty, obligation or professional devotion, could see the differences. Yesterday, his 180 pulsations as tennis player - playing almost the equivalent of four football games in a row! - did not prevent him from being a gentleman. In addition, being on court by himself and with an overwhelming physical waste.
I know it is not a contact sport, but whatever. The pressure, the continuity, the intensity… of the actions is so brutal, that each ball is a [different] world. For a few centimeters, millimeters - the ‘Hawkeye’ decides - a game is won or lost. Thrilling emotion. Throughout the Australia Open final, not a bad gesture, no spitting, no pushing, no nasty protest at the umpire, no theatrics, not even a defiant look like those we are fed up of getting on the ‘green field’ of football. This and that are a different matter.
Mr. Rafael Nadal is awesome. As a player, no need for more description. He’s the number 1 -I do not care what the ATP ranking says-. But his values as athlete and human being, as an example to kids and not so kids and to a society as tense as the one in which we live today, are indeed a mirror in which to look at.
Please, let’s not do as usual with a man as exceptional as him: when he starts to lose -and he will, like every human being-, let’s respect the symbol, the person, his example and what he has meant for our sport while he was dressing shorts and what he can end up meaning dressing in a suit and a tie. If, when he decides to quit, we all together do not succeed in getting that his values endure in our sport with him as a leader, it will be a failure of all -citizens, fans and press-.
[I] hope he lasts long! Although what I propose is that he lasts forever, that is not necessary to see him dressing shorts winning or losing against Djokovic to admire him for life.
PS: For matches as yesterday’s there should be two champions. The final should be declared ‘world heritage’, [it should be] shown in colleges and universities around the world and stand as an example of sport, athletes and persons. It had any kind of things and all were exceptional to give a master class on dedication, excellence, elegance and good manners. If we want, like everything in life, WE CAN! And if we do it politely, much better.
