RAFAEL NADAL PICTURED PLAYING DOUBLES IN PARIS ~ READY FOR SINGLES

RAFAEL NADAL AT THE BNP PARIBAS MASTERS

UPDATE OCTOBER 29, 2008
Rafael Nadal defeated Florent Serra 6-2, 6-4
and will play Gael Monfils October 30, 2008 not before 1:45 p.m. USA EST
In Paris that is 7:45 p.m.
I'll have to post pictures of the Round 2 match with Serra in the near future.
Please go to The schedule for more information


Thursday, October 3o partial schedule:

Court Central
11:00 Juan Martin Del Potro v David Nalbandian
Nb 12:00 Andy Roddick v Gilles Simon
Nb 13:30 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Novak Djokovic
Fb Marin Cilic v Roger Federer
Nb 19:45 Rafael Nadal v Gael Monfils
Fb Tomas Berdych v Nikolay Davydenko

Court 1
14:00 Philipp Kohlschreiber v James Blake
Fb Andy Murray v Fernando Verdasco

(Nb=Not Before, Fb=Followed By)

UPDATE OCTOBER 29 ~ WATCH FREE
works both on MAC anad PC
http://www.justin.tv/siki_sport
and
http://sportsvialaptops.blogspot.com/

I paid for the annual ATP tennis site's live streams, but it never works well for me.
So I always end of watching for free at Justin TV.

THE PARIS DOUBLES REPORT

Rafael Nadal (ESP) and Juan Monaco (ARG) won doubles 6-2, 6-4 over Nicolas Mahut (FRA) and Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) on Tuesday, October 28, 2008

WEDNESDAY October 29, 2008

Rafael Nadal (ESP) and Juan Monaco (ARG) will play Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) and Mark Knowles (BAH)

For more information:
www.bnpparibasmasters.org
www.atptennis.com/1/en/home
and
www.rafaelnadal.com
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for much information, articles, pictures, videos and everything about Rafa

The schedule

Pictures of the doubles match in Paris, October 28, 2008
Above photo credits are Getty and unknown

Above two photo credits: Hamish Blair ~ ATP
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Rafa training and brief interview
Uploaded by RafaNadalLive

Wild Wednesday ~ October 28, 2008 - Source: www.bnpparibasmasters.org


It is not often that so many big names play on the same day of a tournament, but that is exactly the treat that is in store for the crowd at the BNP Paribas Masters on Wednesday. With Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, David Nalbandian, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga just part of the galaxy of stars hitting the courts, fans will hardly know which way to turn.

Anyone with tickets for Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Masters can consider themselves very lucky indeed. Be it for the day or for the night session, they will be witnessing star-studded tennis at its best. From 11 am until late at night, a panoply of seeds will be battling it out for a third-round berth.

Some of the best will be saved til last, with the No2 and 3 seeds taking part in the night session. At 7.45 pm (CET), Roger Federer will make his grand entrance onto Centre Court to face Robin Söderling, who won last week’s tournament a few hours south of Bercy in Lyon. While the Swiss maestro leads 7-0 in the head-to-head and won a title himself last Sunday – at his home tournament in Basle for the third year in a row – the Swedish indoor specialist will certainly be no pushover.

Another pretender to the BNP Paribas Masters throne will follow Federer onto centre stage – Andy Murray. The Scotsman has very much been the rising star of the second half of the season, winning at Madrid and Saint Petersburg in the last two weeks to go with his title in Cincinnati and US Open final. Facing American Sam Querrey, the world No4 should not be in any danger.

The highlight of the afternoon will be the singles debut of world No1 Rafael Nadal, who according to his coach and uncle Toni Nadal is currently suffering from fatigue (though this was not apparent when he partnered Juan Monaco to doubles victory earlier on Tuesday…). He will face lucky loser Florent Serra – a man whom he has beaten twice this year dropping only five games over five sets in the process. The Frenchman will have the crowd behind him and has vowed to play a more aggressive style of tennis on Wednesday.

The crowd will have other home favourites to fete on Wednesday, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No13) facing wily Czech Radek Stepanek and rising star Gilles Simon (No10) who will take on Russia’s Igor Andreev in a match crucial to the Frenchman’s hopes of making the end-of-season ATP Tennis Masters Cup.

David Ferrer (No5), James Blake (No11) and Stanislas Wawrinka (No12) all hope to squeeze into the top eight and secure a berth for Shanghai and all of them will be playing on No1 court tomorrow. Opening the proceedings back on Centre Court at 11am will be reigning champion David Nalbandian (No8), facing Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer.

Surprises may well be in store on Wednesday but one thing is for certain – there will be some incredible tennis from a host of top names.

THE SINGLES SCHEDULE

October 29, 2008 Wednesday Tennis in Paris

Paris (Paris time ~ 6 hours ahead of USA EST)
Court Central
11:00 David Nalbandian v Nicolas Kiefer
Fb Gilles Simon v Igor Andreev
Fb Rafael Nadal v Florent Serra
Fb Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Radek Stepanek
Nb 19:45 Robin Soderling v Roger Federer
Fb Andy Murray v Sam Querrey

Court 1
11:00 Marcel Granollers v Marin Cilic
Fb David Ferrer v Philipp Kohlschreiber
Fb Ivan Ljubicic v Nikolay Davydenko
Fb Stanislas Wawrinka v Tomas Berdych
Fb Simone Bolelli v James Blake

(Nb=Not Before, Fb=Followed By)

More on the schedule

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Rafael Nadal in L'Equipe during BNP Paribas in Paris Bercy

Rafa Report is in French

Uploaded by ReyesVB

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Paris pre-tournment Rafa interview in English

Uploaded by merikob

WE LOVE OUR RAFA ~ NADAL THAT IS

Rafa Nadal

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Part of the Match between Spanish Rafa Nadal and Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu


Nadal into Aussie Open quarters after Mathieu injury

Sun Jan 20, 6:54 AM ET

Rafael Nadal strolled into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after his fourth-round opponent Paul-Henri Mathieu defaulted with a calf muscle injury on Sunday.

The Spanish second seed was leading 6-4, 3-0 at the time the French 23rd seed pulled out after dropping service in the third game of the second set.

Nadal will now play Finland's 24th seed Jarkko Nieminen in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

Mathieu had sought courtside treatment from a trainer for the left calf muscle injury and decided not to aggravate it further when he went behind two service breaks in the second set.

Nadal had been in control of their evening centre court match and had wrapped up the opening set after a service break in the third game.

"I was enjoying the match," Nadal said. "I was playing my best tennis since arriving in Australia.

"I'm happy to be in the quarter-final, but not like this way.

"I feel very good and I will have extra practice tomorrow to make up for my lost match time.

It was Nadal's seventh straight victory over Mathieu and the second in a Grand Slam, after beating him in the third round of the 2006 French Open.

The Spaniard, who has advanced to the quarter-finals without dropping a set, is bidding to match his best Australian Open result which he set last year when he reached the last eight for the first time.

Nadal has the possibility of claiming the world number one ranking off Roger Federer at this year's tournament.

Federer could lose the position he has held with a record 207 consecutive weeks if he fails to reach the semi-finals and Nadal goes on to win the title.

The Swiss star, as defending champion, has so many rankings points to defend here while Nadal, a quarter-finalist last year, has relatively few points to carry-over.

Federer won three of last year's four Grand Slams for the third time in four years, but Nadal has his measure on the red clay of Roland Garros, winning the last three French Opens.

Should Nadal get past Nieminen in his quarter-final he will face the winner of unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Russian 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny in the semis.

Source
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Rafa writes a daily blog post for us at the Australian Open and it is translated for us who are Spanish-challenged. Here is one written prior to the match with Mathieu:

19 January 2008.- Hi everyone.I am writing to you on another day from Melbourne, where we are seeing a really interesting tournament. I carry on with my daily routine without paying much attention to what is going on in other matches. It is important to maintain this, or at least that's what I think, in that you always have to look at, and be centered on the next match.

In my case I have been thinking all day about the match tomorrow against Mathieu. A very good player, and one with whom I have had difficult and hard matches even though the statistics show 6-0 in my favour. I still remember the match two years ago in Roland Garros, which was a key match and I really suffered in order to beat him. So I spent the day as peacefully as one can on a rainy day during an Open. The annoying thing in this case is not for those playing on the covered courts, but for the rest of the players due to play, or in my case, the ones training.

When I got up in the morning at about 10 am, I saw that it was raining, and with this you get up with a different mood. I had arranged to train on one of the outside courts but... in the end I trained an hour with Youzhny on the covered training courts that they have at the tournament. It also rained last year and we had to do the same. One hour of training and back to the hotel afterwards.

But talking of the rain, it is incredible how it affects the tournament and I think that few people realise the very negative consequences. In the case of this tournament, it doesn't have too much affect, or better said, as much as in other Grand Slams. This is the only one for the moment that has a retractable roof and allows, in case of "emergency" (as we call it) to play and carry on with the competition.

At Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open there is no roof and when the rainy days come, like what happened to us in Wimbledon, it breaks up the draw at a personal level, and becomes unbearable to be waiting hours and hours until it is possible to play. Martyrdom (we would say in English "crucifying") You already know that Wimbledon is renovating the centre court and it will be covered as from next year if I am not mistaken. The same thing happened at the US Open 2 or 3 years ago, and it was a disaster. It is good that this tournament has covers.

As for the rest, today I also didn't go to the Aquarium, and I think it will be as difficult for me to go if I carry on, as much as if I am knocked out (the latter is obvious). I went back to my room and spent practically the whole time on Internet looking at things and on Messenger, watched another episode of "Prison Break" and Play with Rafael Maymo, my physio. Very peaceful.

The last thing I want to comment about to you is the unfairness (injustice) of making the players play at such late hours. I am writing this early in the morning (it is 2 am), and Hewitt and Baghdatis are still playing (and what is still left to play) . I think it is criminal. My question is, "what other sport is played at this time?" I think it is unfair and wrong. Not for me, but for all of the players. Those two, at the way that it is going, are going to finish at around 3.30 if it is quick. If it is slow then it will be around 4 or 4.30 am!!!

A hug to everyone, and let's hope I write to you tomorrow after having won. It will be difficult, I am telling you now.

Saludos

Rafa

Source ~ You must register to get to the Fan Page (a tab at the top of the page). It is free and worth every penny of it! : )

Here are just a couple of the questions from fans with Rafa's answers:

Question: Hello Rafa, I would like to ask you about your physical condition. Particularly about your muscular volume. I am a Physiotherapy student, I am 23 years old and I go to the gym, and the truth is that we have a similar build. My question is if you have control over the muscular volume that you develop, and if you have an upper limit in order to not lose speed and agility. Of course I have also noticed that your left arm is more developed than your right arm. Is this deliberate? Thank you and lots of luck.

Answer: Hi Samuel. If I tell you the truth, I don´t work out and much less to develop my physique. That is just the way I am, and apart from that I play tennis. Perhaps it is for this reason that my left arm is more developed. But believe me, I don´t work much on my body.

Question: Hello Rafa. I am Paolo, I am 9 years old and I love to watch you play tennis, most of all when you win. I live in Cayo Vizcaíno (Florida), and I hope to be able to see you here in March. I have vacation during that week, so I will go to see you. I would like to invite you to my home to play a game of tennis with "Wii", as I think that is the only way I could beat you at tennis. Could you be my coach if one day I become a professional tennis player? Good luck in Australia, I look forward to seeing you in Cayo Vizcaíno. (Paolo Moreno)

Answer: Hi Paolo. Thank you for the invitation. I won´t promise you anything, I hope you understand, right? If one day you dedicate yourself to tennis, I am sure that you could even play against me. I don´t know if I will ever be a coach. But you can count on me to give you some advice, okay? Look after yourself and many thanks. I hope that you will cheer for me and all the Spaniards in Miami!

My comment after Rafa's most recent blog post and his answers to fans' questions:

I am so surprised with Rafa's modesty every time I see him talk or read his words. I would think it would be so easy to get "full of yourself" with all of the adoration that we all have for him and the attention he generates, but no, not Rafa ~ he remains as natural as if he didn't reap all the attention. That in itself makes him Number 1 to me. He makes believing more than make believe...to know that just being himself and comfortable with that makes him all the more adorable and worthy of our love.

Rafa is so special to write to us daily and answer these questions.

And Bee and Ines help those of us who are Spanish-illiterate or Spanish-challenged. Rafa makes me want to learn Spanish!

What a Wonderful World with the love that Rafa generates.

RAFA




Bless us all.