The draw ceremony for the French Open 2012 happened yesterday. Here is the official men’s singles and women’s singles draws from the official French Open website linked here.
Rafael Nadal and Li Na were there for the official ceremony.
I never thought I would see a waxwork of Rafael Nadal, but it has been unveiled in Regents Park, London. The waxwork will later take up residence at the Madame Tussauds museum in London.
Rafael Nadal is enjoying his week off before the French Open 2012 at home in Mallorca.
Rafael Nadal is still by far the king of clay. Nadal has just captured the Rome Masters title over Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-3.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has both made the Forbes’ 2012 list of the world’s most powerful celebrities.
Federer was the highest-ranked tennis players at No. 31, followed by Nadal (47), Maria Sharapova (71), Serena Williams (77) and Li Na (87)
Clearly Rafa was upset in his press conference last night after his 3rd round defeat to Fernando Verdasco.
The court was once again the aim of his frustration and he has threatened to stay away next year.
“Being able to move is very important for me and if I can’t move well, I can’t hit the ball well either.
“If things don’t change, this will be one less tournament on the calendar for me.
“This surface destabilises the game. It is a completely different game and I don’t want to take risks.”
It will be very interesting to see what does happen in 2013. Will the players carry out threats to not attend?
At the 14th time of asking Fernando Verdasco has finally registered a win over compatriot Rafael Nadal.
Rafa was all over the shop and twice served for the match. To not close out with the chances he was presented is rather very worrying. But credit must go to Fernando, the court is fast and he played for winners and was rewarded. The joy was there for all to see at the end of the match. There was a prolonged lie on the clay, a big hug from Dad and a little cry into his towel at his chair.
The other all Spanish affair was a very closely fought battle with Almagro and Ferrer. Nico had MP’s to try and register his first win over Ferrer but unlike Verdasco he was not able to take advantage and it is David who will next play Federer.
Roger Federer have an easier time on court yesterday against Frenchman Gasquest. A straight sets victory was registered 6-3 6-2.
Novak had a few slips on his way to the Quarter Final against Wawrinka but steadied himself for a 7-6 6-4 win.
Janko Tipsarevic seems to like 3 set matches as he again went the distance against Simon last into the night. He finally booked his spot against fellow Serb Djokovic with a 7-6 5-7 6-1 win.
Other resuts:
Juan Martin Del Potro beat Marin Cilic 6-2 6-4
Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Jo Wilfried Tsonga 7-5 3-6 7-6
Tomas Berdych beat Gael Monfils 6-1 6-41
I do wonder sometimes just what Rafa has been drinking to come out with such comments.
No way is a Gold medal more important than a Slam. A Slam is the ultimate test of a player with 7 matches over a 2 week period against the best. Some people will even argue that tennis should not be an Olympic sport as it is contested by professionals. The whole idea of the Olympics is for the amateurs to shine in their field.
“The Olympic Games is very special for many reasons and in my opinion the biggest one because you are representing your country,” Nadal said as he prepares for the Madrid Masters event starting next week.
“You have the feeling that you are with all the Spanish sportsmen representing our country,”
If Rafa cares so much for his country why does he not make himself available for all the Davis Cup matches? He withdraws as he wants to concentrate on ATP tournaments. But wait, playing for Spain is “the biggest”.
Bizarre statement Rafa. Tennis is about an indivdual with a tournament held 4 times a year for you to wrap yourself in the flag. Don’t forget where you made your name Rafa and that was not Beijing.
Check out these cool t-shirts that have Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on them! The pixel effect is really awesome!
These shirts come with different color backgrounds such as grey or black or even navy blue, and Roger’s and Rafa’s shirts can be different colors as well, depending on the background color.
I hope you enjoy looking at these cool tees!
We have had plenty of matches, even ones that benefited their respective charities but recently the once close relationship between Rafa & Roger has shown signs of wear and tear.
We have had Rafa quitting his position on the Players Council due to lack of support from Roger on his stand regarding changes to the ranking system. There was also disagreement between the two over the recent appointment of Brad Drewitt to the post of ATP President.
One topic they can agree on is the blue clay of the upcoming Madrid Masters.
“I have no idea how this will go. We were against it, Nadal even vehemently and I support him. He fears that a tradition is getting broken and that one tournament director wants to have blue clay, the other one grey, green or red one.
“I’m also for traditions but I can understand it that new things have to get tested. The clay in Madrid has to be perfect though otherwise it will be a debacle for the tournament.”
Roger went on to explain that over the past 6 months he has not spent much time with Rafa due to each missing tournaments.
“We have seen each other not that often. He wasn’t in Rotterdam and Dubai, I wasn’t in Shanghai and he wasn’t in Bercy. We only saw each other in London, Melbourne and briefly in Indian Wells. We have a bit more distance at the moment compared to times when we saw each other for weeks nearly daily.”
I have always found it difficult to understand how players can have a close relationship with someone who is a professional rival. A tennis player is a lone wolf, there is no one to help him when he is playing on court, bar a glance at his box. When pride, points, money and more importantly titles are on the line it is hard to understand how you can be buddies. Mental toughness is a vital part of a players make-up in todays game, maybe they find a way, who knows.
Rafael Nadal won the Monte Carlo Masters for the 8th consecutive year and proved 8th time round that he could end his losing streak to Novak Djokovic winning 6-3 6-1 in the final!
While this win has been a long time coming, the amount of emotion from Rafa still surprised me, he looked so elated after the match you could tell how much this win means to him. While Novak is still number 1, he has a great number of points to defend throughout the clay season, if Nadal can repeat the superior clay court game we saw yesterday then will the King of Clay enter Roland Garros with Rome and Madrid under his belt too? Although it’s still premature to say Rafa can beat Novak in a Wimbledon final as Djokovic’s error count was appalling and he wasnt particularly aggressive but its definitely a step in the right direction for the world number 2!
Tomorrow is set to be an amazing Monte Carlo Masters Final. The final will see Novak Djokovic playing Rafael Nadal. It has been very windy in Monte Carlo and it seemed as though Djokovic was struggling today with the conditions. Nadal however, seemed to have a great time on the clay.
I think tomorrow its going to be a very tough time for Djokovic! I think Nadal will win in straight sets.
It has been announced that their will be an exhibition match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the Bernebeu stadium. The aim of this exhibition match is to set a new attendance record for a tennis match.
“The aim of this exhibition match is to establish a new attendance record of more than 80,000 spectators for a tennis match,” Real Madrid said on their website.
According to the ATP World Tour website, the current attendance record stands at 35,681 for a match between Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams in Brussels in 2010.
This is going to be a dream for Rafael Nadal who is also a big support of Real Madrid.
Rafael Nadal, the number 2 ranked tennis player in the world, has a consummate resume of professional tennis achievements that includes 46 titles, 10 Grand Slam championships and the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal. There is one title that has eluded Nadal in his stellar career thus far and that is the Sony Ericsson Open, from which Nadal withdrew at the end of March after reaching the semifinals. Nadal, who has played through knee injuries before such as at the 2004 French Open, was scheduled to play Andy Murray, who had beaten him on the big stage before. In fact, even with a healthy knee, the Sony Ericsson match was expected to be a shootout.
Nadal is a three-time runner-up at the Sony Ericsson Open and has yet to win the title. Though this is hardly a blemish on his career, because of his longstanding knee issues insiders would have to note the lingering doubts as to Nadal’s long-term health. Responding to such doubts, Nadal issued the followed statement: “As always, I believe that things can improve. I did a lot of treatment, waiting.” Nadal went on to apologize to his fans and the people in attendance for the Sony Ericsson semifinal matchup.
Nadal’s next move will be to recuperate in time to hit the ground running during the clay-court season, which kicks into full swing in mid-April when Nadal plans to compete at the Monte Carlo Masters, then ideally at the French Open at the end of May. In the meantime, Nadal will hardly be idle or testing his backhand on onlinepokerlowdown.com (small plug to our friends 
). Nadal has been managing knee pain since 2009 when his knee tendinitis first flared up. At the time, Nadal combatted the condition with a Platelet-Rich Plasma injection. Since then, knee pain has been an ongoing companion for the 25 year-old player. Whether or not Nadal will receive similar or more aggressive treatment for his current left knee malady is unclear.
While some analysts have speculated that the withdrawal was precautionary and that the knee is not that bad off, it appears Nadal will need some form of recuperative therapy prior to clay-court season. In the meantime, the Sony Ericsson still eludes Nadal.
Rafael Nadal featured in the recent Kia Sportage advertisement. What do you think of his performance? and the car?
Babolat have released a fun video of Rafael Nadal and his coach/uncle Toni demo’ing the latest Play & Connect racquet from Babolat.
I don’t find this surprising. For me this was the whole point of withdrawing from the Semi Final against Murray in Miami. For Rafa it is all about the clay and he was not going to do anything to even slightly jeopardise that.
Rafa has been to visit one of his medical team on Monday and according to his official Twitter account all is positive and that training for the Monte Carlo Masters will be underway in the next few days.
I will keep my eye on Rafa’s official sources and bring you any updates.
Questions are being raised on whether Rafa will be fit for the clay season, his success in the clay court stint has earned him the nickname “King of Clay”.
When Rafael Nadal edged past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to advance to the semi finals at the Sony Ericsson Open, he looked to have found form that would have beaten Roger Federer in the Desert at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The world number two cut out the forehand errors that were very common in his match against Federer, with Tsonga unable to answer the Spaniard’s exceptional speed and accuracy. Rumours started circulating, only hours after the match, that Rafa had suffered some kind of leg injury during the match. The following day, Nadal confirmed he had a left knee injury that needed a lot of treatment and rest.
While the World number 2 has stated he plans to be ready for his home masters tournament in Monte Carlo in two weeks, there are various officials casting doubt on whether he will be ready in time. The impact of his absence in Monte Carlo could have on his game is quite significant as it is the first masters of the year on clay and provides very good preparation for Roland Garros, which is only a month and a half away. Now while Rafa has plenty of time to recover before he begins his only Grand Slam defence, will he be playing his best tennis and able to not hold back on his left knee? We look back to January at this year’s Australian Open, Rafa stated he had to hold back on his stretching and putting weight on his leg, due to a crack before walking on court.
At the moment it’s all just speculation, we will have to wait and see what form the world number two has in a couple of weeks, but if he isn’t able to rely and put full strain on his left knee, I don’t see him defending his title in Monte Carlo or at the French Open.
Get yourself right for the dirt Rafael. Rafael Nadal is going to be the king of clay yet again in Paris?
