Hola!

Tonight I write to you quickly from my room before going to bed in order to relax for the so important day of tomorrow. Today was an intense day. A lot of people around me all the time, during practice, with the press, at the hotel, in my room and even at the bar where we went to see the football match.

I will be fast today, coming straight to the point. Today I practiced at 1 PM on court 3. It is a court which is close to center court and it has got stands. They play matches there during the tournament, but now that almost all competitions are finished we could practice there. There were quite a lot of people in the stands and that’s nice. I don’t know, the people support you a lot and they are really lovely.

At the beginning I didn’t have to do press today because I did quite a lot last night and I didn’t think that it was necessary. Yesterday I went for dinner after press, then directly to bed and this morning to practice. Actually the practice court was full of journalists and cameras and I was pleased to talk to them at the end of the practice session. I show a picture which was taken during today’s “improvised” press conference that Benito organized with the Spanish press. After that I had to do some international press as well upstairs in the press room, something that wasn’t planned at the beginning. Today I ate pretty late (at 3:30 PM) and at 4:15 PM I went back to the hotel to relax.

During the afternoon in the hotel I was chatting a bit over the internet with some friends and then I went downstairs for an interview with Alex Corretja and Rosana Romero from TVE. Who do I chat with? With friends from Manacor, with people I know etc. Not many, to be honest there a only a few to who I talk always. But I like to keep in touch with the them and with internet it’s much easier. Since I have a web cam in my computer they can see me and I can see them as well.

As I said I had an appointment with TVE at 7:30 PM but I went downstairs a bit later, just on time to do the interview and go out for dinner at a bar where Carlos Costa has made reservations to see the matches of the Spanish League. Yes, yes, the matches. We saw the two at a bar in the center of Paris and they were really unbelievable. I was excited because I hadn’t seen matches for quite some time and we had a lot of fun. We also ate there and afterwards I went back to the hotel to sleep early.

Many of you will be asking if I’m nervous tonight. I want to be honest with everybody. Of course I’m a bit nervous and it will cost me more than usually to go to sleep. I imagine (and I know) that it’s a normal thing. Of course it’s normal to be nervous before an important final. I’m sure that other sportsmen feel the same before playing a Champions League final or so. Tomorrow when I walk on court I will be nervous for sure and the important thing is to know how to get through that moment. That and playing well, of course. But yes, I’m a bit nervous and that’s normal.

Tomorrow I practice at 11:30 AM. Today after practice I asked Vittorio Selmi from the ATP to look for a player to warm-up. It will be a 30-minute warm-up and then I’ll go to the locker room, take a shower, eat something and I’ll focus on the match in the locker-room.

Well, we’ll see how it goes, wish me good luck.

Greetings to everybody.

Rafa

 
Hello Everybody,

I don’t know, if the other day I was trapped with writing, today it’s impossible… I really don’t know what I can write nor what I should write. I’m sorry. I know that some people criticize me for that but I only tell you the truth. Today I played one of the most important matches of the year and still I’m a bit blocked for writing. I don’t know if it is because I have too many things that I could tell you or simply because I don’t think I should tell them.

The case is that we are here, happy once again to be in the Roland Garros final. I’ve already talked about it in the press conference and I imagine that you’ll get the comments since there were more journalists than ever. This happens at almost every tournament like here, since the event is bigger there are also more journalists. I think that it will be easy for you to find news about the match. I only tell you that I think that I played at a very good level and that I’m feeling well.

Before matches we warm-up. It’s a bit different from practice on a normal day when there’s no match because we do the movements we except to do on court and for example we don’t play competition points. The person who accompanies you, who helps you warm-up, knows that it’s not a useful practice session for him. Today I practiced with a Colombian boy, a junior called Alejandro Gonzalez. A very nice guy and I hope that he’ll do well here and in his career. He told me that he lost in the first round in the juniors tournament here but I’m sure that he’ll be more lucky at other tournaments because he plays pretty well. I saw what he did and I saw that he lost against the player who’s now in the final. Well, he’ll have more opportunities.

My mother, my grandmother, my uncle Rafael and his wife joined my father and the rest of the team here in Paris. They were in the club this afternoon and they came back to the hotel before me. I arrived at the hotel at 9:30 PM and we went for dinner at 9:45 PM. We went to the Italian restaurant of the other day where Moyini did the trunk flexions. Vitto had booked a table for the whole group. Giorgio was there as well and we ate pretty well once again.

To tell you the truth we do a lot of press work after the match. Today it was a bit shorter but I understand and know that it’s like that. They tell me that I have another press conference tomorrow and that’s what I don’t understand. I really don’t know anything new that I could tell them. I’ve said everything today!!! Besides that there was a funny moment when I was asked about my favorite female player and I said that it was Henin. When I said that she was it because of her tennis and only that, all journalist were laughing, thinking about the double sense. I had to make clear that I just referred to the one which seems the most complete playing tennis. NOTHING ELSE!!!

Well tomorrow I will tell you more things. I also wanted to send greetings to a “Mallorquin” who sent me a message via Carlos Costa today. His name is Jose Ramon. Thanks a lot for the email that you sent me today. I only tell you to be very enthusiastic and thanks again for the support. I hope that you continue being motivated for the tennis.

Hugs to everybody.

Rafa

 
Thursday was a waiting day. Relaxing and waiting for Friday’s match. A difficult match, since we are in the semifinals and everything becomes more complicated. Everybody is here to win the title and the last four are the ones who want to win it most you can say. Djokovic is a young player who is one year younger than me and already third in the ranking of the year which we call “Race”. This means that he has been playing very well and that he’s up there. We’ll see. Actually he’s a very young player, he’s one year younger than me but still it seems that I’m older. Maybe because I’ve been on the circuit for four or almost five years, which are a few years already… I think that he’s been there for about two years which is a lot as well and now he has very good results. I think that he might be a future number 1.

Today I’ll try to live my normal life. Another day between matches. Get up, relax, breakfast, trip to the tournament and practice. I knew that I was practicing at the same time as Djokovic but of course on a different court. I wanted to practice at 11 AM as I said last night and I finally practiced at 11:15 AM.

After that I didn’t do a lot because I wanted to have a quick lunch at the club and run back to the hotel. Today I spent less time in the club because I wanted to go back quickly and relax and do something afterwards. That’s why I went back to hotel early as I said.

During the afternoon Carlos Costa called me in the room telling me that he was going out for a walk with my uncle Toni. I don’t usually go for walks in the afternoon because normally I stay at the club, but today I felt like going and I took advantage of the opportunity. I knew that they were going for some shopping and I joined them. The three of us went for a walk on the Champs Elysées together with my father and we bought some things in the Hugo Boss shop there. They told me that it’s the biggest in Europe and they really have everything there. We’ve been there for a while and I picked-up a few things I needed. I don’t go for shopping very often but I think that it was good to stay with the family, get some fresh air and do something different.

As I got back to the hotel David Nalbandian called me on the phone to see if I wanted to … play a play station game. David is still in Paris practicing and he will be leaving to Halle tomorrow. Of course I wanted to play! Moyini went back to Palma after yesterday’s match and Ferru, as you know, went back a few days ago and therefore the level went down a lot. The rivals? Benito who is worse every day (all the other way round) and a special guest who knows about football: Esteban Cambiasso. Cuchu (that’s how they call him) likes tennis a lot and he came here after the match he played in Barcelona with Argentina to see the quarters and the semis and since he also stays in our hotel, he plays with us. David and myself beat him 2-0, better for him that nothing was at stake… I imagine that Chuchu would have to team-up with somebody else in order to see if he can beat us. He plays very well. Who knows, he might look for Crespo to see if they can score some goals… The night before we also played a few games but it was Benito and me against them, you’ll know who won and who lost… I don’t say anything else. Only that it’s better not to play with Benito… We went down to the Third Division and we started playing in the Champions League…

Of course I’ve seen comments asking about what we talked in our conversation with Antonio Banderas. I don’t know if I can tell you because those are private conversations even if we didn’t speak about how to save the world from wars or something similar I still think that they have to remain private, right? Actually he seemed to be a very very nice guy. A great person. We talked about many things and he talked to us about shootings, how they are done, how they film dangerous scenes and that some people got really hurt doing it and how much time you need to do a movie etc. It’s unbelievable how many days they film. We talked about many things and the conversation was very entertaining. My uncle Toni also took advantage of the situation to ask him many questions. And he also asked us many questions about tennis. You can see that he likes it quite a lot. A very nice guy as I already said.

Hasta mañana and thanks for the support.

Greetings to everybody,

Rafa

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