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RafaLint: February 6th

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Rafa does social media:

  • Rafa let us know he was fighting off the cold weather by practicing: English; Spanish. (Um. I like the length of those shorts, Rafa.)

Rafa also had something to say about Contador:

Here’s a mangle:

Incredible news the counter, there is no definitive evidence and put the highest penalty … SORRY … many minds crack! All my support!

Random:

  • To the Woodshed - an interesting look at the difference in how differently Australia and US broadcast tennis.
  • Apparently, it snowed on Mallorca on the weekend - wonder if Rafa played in it? I think snow is pretty rare there. Photos tweeted by MarcCapo: one, two, three

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RafaLint: February 4th

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Thanks to some prodding, I finally got around to making a DC version of the calendar. Just note, the DC pictures will be grainier than the rest because it was indoors. You can buy it on QOOP.

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RafaLint: January 31st

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 …”

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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.

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Rafa’s back home

And we know this thanks to the iB3 and their airport stalking ways:

Check davidjnadal’s twitter for quotes from the interview and feel free to mangle them. I’m late getting back to work from lunch!

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RafaLint: January 30th

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Today’s recommended reading:
Nadal vs. Djokovic: Here We Are Again, My Friend - by Brian Phillips (Grantland.com)

No, this isn’t recommended reading, it’s required reading. If you haven’t read it already - go off. Be gone with you. Read it. We’ll wait until you get back. *whistles*

The cruelest thing about this glutted golden age of men’s tennis is that it keeps producing astonishing matches, matches that actually expand your idea of what sport can be, and someone has to lose all of them.

Depends on your definition of lose, I guess. I know someone walked off with a title, bigger trophy and more money, but I don’t think either player was a loser on Sunday.

Nadal, though? He plays like he’s fighting giants. It’s not just the sneer, or the muscles, or the hair, or that forehand — you know, the one where he swoops the racket all the way around his head like he’s whipping the team pulling his chariot. It’s also that frantic tenacity that used to drive me so nuts. Federer seems devastated when he loses but he also seems to sense losses coming and accept them before they arrive. When Nadal falls behind, he turns the match into life and death. He gets mad. He hesitates less. He hits the ball harder. He doesn’t look sad or scared. He looks defiant, and he plays like he’s possessed.

There was more than one time during that final where Rafa had the look of a madman in his eye. I remember seeing him turning to get a ball from a ball kid to serve (he wasn’t rude or anything) and his eyes were wide and full of crazy. It frightened me and thrilled me at the same time.

Of course, the terrible thing about tennis, as opposed to mere epic warfare, is that you have to do it again next week. Ultimately, I think what’s clued me in to Nadal’s greatness is that, ever since Djokovic’s rise, he plays this way and still loses.

Or he plays this way, loses and still comes back for more.

You spend years in the shadow of your rival. You never stop working or believing. Finally it all comes together: you surpass him. For a year, maybe two, you win everything. You turn the game upside down, and your bottomless reserve of will makes you seem unstoppable. All the records are going to fall.7 Then, more or less suddenly, a guy you used to beat comfortably surpasses you. Long before your reign was supposed to end, you find yourself overshadowed again. You lose five straight, six straight, seven straight to the new champion, all in finals, three of them in majors. You’re 25, in what should be the peak of your prime as an athlete, and you’re right back where you started. It turns out that your relentlessness isn’t an unstoppable force. But — precisely because you have it — you keep going as if it is.

It’s madness. Bless him.

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