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7th February 2010

Rafa's knee injury is still keeping him off the courts. He will not play Rotterdam. We are waiting for news regarding when he will start playing again.

On Wednesday, 10 February, from 18:00 local time, Eurosport.Yahoo.es will enable a chat with Toni Nadal for Internet users. Starting Tuesday, 9 February, you can leave your questions for him to answer.

Don't forget to vote for Rafa in the
ATP's Fan Favorites Awards

Go to Breaking News for quick updates or the various news threads for detail on any Rafa sightings.

Vamos Brigade at the Australian Open 2010

We are always indebted to those members of the Vamos Brigade who attend tournaments and take the time to share their experiences and photographs. For those of us stuck at home it's a great opportunity to live life vicariously and get a feeling of what it's like to be there.

This year quite a few of us went to the Australian Open. Here is a taster of some of their blogs and pictures.

|maddie|
It’s always special seeing Rafa, whether it’s an actual match or even just a practice, and I always take way too many photos. Obviously I haven’t put all of them in the blog, but I have chosen the best ones to show you.


After the win of the previous night, my main aim for the day was to see Rafa training. And thanks to a facebook status update which I was lucky to see, our boy made it a whole lot easier to achieve... Rafael Nadal See what I mean!? No easy matches! Peter played great and it was tough, specially the first set. Tomorrow practice at 12 | Es lo que digo, aqui no hay partidos faciles. Luczak jugo muy bien el primer set. Manana entreno a las 12.

Therefore, to the practice courts we went! It's not often you are able to secure such information when you are at the Australian Open as they do their absolute best to keep the training schedules a secret.


Jabbie
Watching Rafa play live for the first time was definitely worth the wait. Just seeing him on the court and doing all those Rafa-things and this time it's not through a TV or computer screen, just... Those of you who have been there, done that, forgive my first-time fangirly self. While I didn't expect this to be an easy match, I was a little surprised at his form during the first set.


First set in the bag, I breathed a little easier and stole off for a food and bathroom break with my friend. It wasn't until we were outside that we realised we'd forgotten the long lines and the wait to get back in. We missed half the second set (but were no longer suffering hunger pangs nor bladder urges), but at that point, Peter was beginning to look tired while Rafa looked ready to capitalise and run away with the match, so I wasn't too worried. The rest of the game went fairly routinely even if the Aussie supporters never became any less annoying (have I mentioned I dislike Aussie supporters greatly? Unpatriotic, me? ). Before we knew it, it was game, set, match to Rafa and I was on my feet, clapping and filming and generally failing at both.

loobyloo
A few people remained and we speculated as to who would be coming out. The lady next to me said in an assured tone 'it's Rafa' and said she knew because she 'knew someone out the back'. Had no reason to doubt her so stood my ground.

Just 10 minutes later, Rafa appeared with full entourage including Papa. I thought the two young ladies to my right were going to hyperventilate. Couldn't have blamed them if they did - boy Rafa is looking good...


Got a text from Ging and although we hadn't met in person, we worked out that she was stood just behind me. We were able to say hi before she worked her way forward and we met properly.

There were a few cute moments during the practice, Rafa smiling shyly and acknowledging the crowd as he does and retrieving a wayward ball and nearly slicing a channel 7 guy's camera in two. His volley session was especially impressive, particularly for someone who has a things about his hands, like I do.


His hitting partner did an admirable job until it came to returning Rafa's serves. By this time we had been joined by a guy who insisted on shouting loudly at Rafa and who seemed to be Master of Stating the Bleeding Obvious. He proudly informed me that Rafa hadn't in fact played at Wimbledon last year. As I said. Bleeding Obvious. Lil has suggested since that I should have suggested he looked at VB to widen his Rafa knowledge. He was enthusiastic, I give him that so I probably should have.

When Rafa began to wrap up his practice Bleeding Obvious stated that he wouldn't stay to sign autographs. Yes he would I said. This is Rafa Nadal. Rafa did tease us by coming close to retrieve an errant ball but then made his way over to start going along the line of fans, much to the delight / ardent fervour of the crowd. Ging and I wished him good luck as he came past to which he replied the obligatory 'thank you' and I got two great close up photos.


He did a great job and took some time making his way along the line before disappearing behind the security screens. Ging and I chatted about our good luck before I made my way back to the hotel for a while, weariness setting in.

Later I got hold of Lil and the three of us met as planned at RLA concourse. It was wonderful to meet Lil again, after bidding her 'au revoir' last year and not knowing whether we'd have the chance to share a Frozen Margarita in the future. Well we did And Ging has the photo to prove it.


There was a tense moment when Lillian doubted that our Margie glasses had the flashing lights we were accustomed to, but luckily they did. I thought briefly that she may give her Margie right back to the guy behind the counter in protest!

Tess
Marc Lopez had just come on court. We've been following him during the qualies for the past few years now, he's always fun to watch. As we were watching him, my friend turns around. I can't remember her exact words now.... but from her reaction, she had seen someone.

"Who?!" I said, turning around anxiously to see who she had seen! Luckily for me, I had just finished eating food, as surely enough... Rafa was walking right past us... and was staying to watch Marc!


He had with him, and was listening to his ipod, clearly not wishing to be disturbed, however several random fans decided they were going to come and take photos of him. Bloody hell, I would hate to be famous. Coming and taking photos of him from a front angle, as if he was a model posing for a magazine. I don't think I've ever quite done that! I quickly text a few friends to alert them that Rafa was here! A friend of mine text back telling me to go talk to him... but I didn't want to bother him with my terrible Spanglish.... heck what Spanglish?! I don't know any/enough Spanish to even speak Spanglish!!! "Vamos? Si? ". Yeah right , what was the point. He had his ear phones in anyway, I didn't want to disturb him, at least not until after the match. I still felt sorry for him that so many random people were just going up to him, front on, and sticking the camera right in his face. I know he's famous and all, but, the poor guy.

Sadly, Marc lost in two sets.... Rafa then got up. My friend decided she was getting her Espana hat signed, so I thought I'd better get in quickly myself while he's around... luckily I had my Spanish flag with me! Phew! I gave it to him and he signed away... then went to give the texta back to me but I didn't quite catch it... or he didn't quite hand it over properly. One way or the other, it was a brief but funny moment. He smiled and chuckled, which I thought was very cute!!

Lillian
How sad, poor Rafi... loobyloo and I left Melbourne Park after the game and walked along the river to Crown casino where we were going to sit and discuss what we'd just seen over some tapas and a glass of wine.

We were actually so much in shock that we ate, had a soft drink, hugged and left - looby for her hotel and me for a taxi from Crown to my daughter Sabine's house.

I down loaded all my pics this morning of the practice session and the game and will post as many as I can here hopefully this evening.


Rafa's practice included quite a deep discussion between him and Uncle Toni - which appeared to interrupt the routine of the usually free flowing pre match warm up.

The match began at a very high standard - it didn't really matter who anyone was barracking for - it was thrilling and everyone was clapping the great shots by both - each point was hard fought and won.


After the trainer's examination it seemed very clear from Rafa's disposition that the match couldn't go on. He didn't have it in him. He took the court down our end and hit shots as best he could, with a quick shake of the head to Uncle Toni - it being a fait accompli that it was over. It wasn't anybody's fault, the state of the match or his emotions - it just was.