Hail to the King of Clay Rafel Nadal....

Rafa wins Rome for the third time!

21st title,
77th win on clay
3rd Rome title




Highlights:

Final against Fernando Gonzalez




Semi Final against Nikolay Davydenko





Quarter Final against Novak Djokovic





3R against Mikhai Youzhny

ATP Master Series Rome

First appearance:

Nadal/Moya def Federer Wawrinka (6-4, 7-6)



watch the highlights:



Other news:

Murray and Hewitt lose in the first round

Hewitt, what are you thinking?

Anday? what are YOU thinking? Djoko reached and passed you. You are diving to the bottom. Your top 10 position is in danger. whatever you want to do, do it quickly....you have the talent, use it...

Bye Bye Kim....

Kim , enjoy the wedding and family life. Hopw you can rest and come back to tennis one day, by your own choice..I will miss you!

Rafa wins the very first battle of surfaces!

It looked like a crazy idea, but crazy is usually good and exciting and these two men braved the challenge of playing on a hybrid court in Majorca, Rafa's hometown ( or home Island).


I saw pictures of the surface days before the match on the internet. I didn't notice the lamps on grass ( I thought they were helmets, ...why would they put helmets on grass?) but they were lights to make the grass grow. Instead they burnt the grass and had to change it overnight! later I read thet the grass had worms!
I say grass lost the battle to clay here. A very fussy and hard to maintain surface!

A glimpse of the match:


match stats ( I am cheating and copying my comments in Peter Bodo's tennis world)

set 1:
Aces (N:1, fed2)
1st serve in (N:76%, F:75%)
1st serve points won (N: 64%, F:53%)
2nd serve points won (N: 56%, F:50%)
returns in (N: 77%, F:81%)
baseline points won (N:29/52, F: 20/42)
net points won (N: 5/7, F: 5/17) wow!
Break points won (N:2/6, F: 1/2)
total winners (N:17, F:20)
Unforced errors(N:13, F:22) wow!
Forced errors(N:2, F:3)

set 2:
Aces (N:4, fed 3)
1st serve in (N:75%, F:84%)
1st serve points won (N: 67%, F:81%)
2nd serve points won (N: 50%, F:75%) wow!
returns in (N:64%, F:75%)
baseline points won (N:11/29, F: 18/32)
net points won (N: 6/11, F: 5/8) wow!
Break points won (N:0/0, F: 1/2)

they didn't show the stats for the third set ( or maybe I missed it)
match summary
Aces (N:5, fed 8)
1st serve in (N:73%, F:76%)
1st serve points won (N: 68%, F:64%)
2nd serve points won (N: 55%, F:55%) 55? what happened in the third set?
returns in (N:75%, F:82%)
baseline points won (N:78/149, F: 62/128)
net points won (N: 16/26, F: 19/47) wow!
Break points won (N:3/8, F: 3/6)
Double faults (N:2, F:2)
Match points: (N:1/4, F:0/2)

Rafa wins 2-1 (7-6, 4-6, 7-6 (12/10))


clay/grass stats:

points won (N:121, F: 116)
points won on clay (N:70, F:58)
points won on grass(N:51, F:58)


The tie break was very interesting. Each has one serve on clay and one on grass. Rafa needed 4 match points to win. Federer had probably 3 match points. I thought it couldn't be serious.
Rafa lost balance on grass several times. Fed won several points on slice when Rafa was on grass and he came to the net more often ( must have read steve's post on espn!). The ball woud just die on grass. Nadal won a similar point at the end of th tie break.

They gave severl people including Moya a miniature version of the court and gave Rafa and Roger a larger one. I don't think there was a trophy or anything.
They sat next to each other, chatting and some lucky fans could get the signature of both on the same item.
I guess they didn't want to give away "information" by trying too hard. It was a fun and interesting match. The funniest part was the shoe change. If they ever want to this in real life, they have to design special shoes,

thanks a lot to Helen for warning and posting the sopcast link.thanks ptenisnet for warning about the time!thanks mariej for antena3 address.

Rafa wins Barcelona title, Unbeaten streak 72!

Rafa defeated Gillermo Canas of Argentina to collect his third Barcelona title and his 20th career title. Rafa struggled in the opening game, but he held serve and after that had no problem dispatching Canas. Later Canas said in the press conference that he thought he was very close to Rafa and that the difference was only two breaks!

I admire Canas's toughness, but sweet gillermo, isn't tennis all about a few breaks? And join the club with Federer and others who think they have solved Rafa's one-dimensional game, but haven't been able to do anything yet? 72 tries?

well , congratulations to Rafa for defending his title and also making history by becoming the second man after wilander to win this title 3 times in a row. Congratulations to Canas for a great year. This was his second final and he jumped from 140 something at the beginning of the year, to Numero 22 after BArcelona!

Oh, and Rafa is now Numero Uno in ATP race with 365 points. Some people say it is no big deal and should look at the race points after wimbledon. To me, this spot was Roger's all the time and now Rafa has gone up against him for the first time. I take it as a positive sign for Rafa.

Here's a picture for you (from openseatbarcelona.com). look at the trophy. How much do you think it weighs? I go for 150 lb!