Shanghai Masters 2009
by MAC
This was the first time that a Masters Series tournament had been played in Shanghai though the stadium will be familiar to tennis fans since for the last 4 years it hosted the ATP Masters Cup. The Masters Cup has been replaced by the World Tour Finals to be held at the O2 in London so Shanghai has this tournament which replaces the Madrid Masters in the calendar. Are you keeping up?
It is very interesting to read back through everybody's thoughts about this tournament with the benefit of hindsight. The initial feeling was one of great depression at the draw. With an opening match with either Blake or Karlovic, Verdasco in his quarter and Del Potro, Soderling and Tsonga potential semi finalists it didn't look hopeful. One person even went so far as to hope Rafa would withdraw to prevent embarrassment. However, a lot of us were irrationally cheered up seeing him practising in his old sleeveless gear.
Rafa ended up playing Blake in his opening match. Although he'd beaten him the last three times they played, a lot of us who have been following him since 2005 still find it hard to forget those first three meetings. It turned out to be pretty tough after an easy first set. You could tell by his celebration at the end of the match that Rafa was thrilled to come through this 6-2 6-7(4) 6-4.
"If it [my form] is like this and I continue with this motivation, maybe not this year but next year, I am going to come back to play my best tennis. I am happy with how I am playing and right now I have to play my best tennis in the big matches. I lost a few important matches after I came back from the injury and that's normal, because you need confidence to play against the best players. Victories like today's give me extra confidence, and playing like this I hope to have chances to win tournaments."
The next round, against Tommy Robredo was a pretty straightforward 6-1 6-4 win. It did give him a chance to show his wonderful athleticism.
We are not sure whether he ever took the opportunity to have a beer at his press conference.
"I am playing well," he said. "But I played two terrible games at the start of the second set so I have to improve in situations like this if I want to beat the top players."
There is no good reason to show this picture here but a shirtless Rafa always makes things seem better.
Gael Monfils had been forced to retire so it was Ivan Ljubicic in the quarter final. It was a tough first set but Rafa showed some of his old fight to get back in the match and take the second. With everything nicely poised at 3-6 6-3 Ljubicic retired. Would Rafa have won if that had not happened? We will never know. Still, it was good to see some wonderfully balletic shots and a couple of vintage fist pumps.
Many people will love Feliciano Lopez until the end of time for beating Robin Soderling. It meant we had the prettiest semi final we have seen in a long time. It was such a shame that he, too, had to retire at 6-1 3-0 to Rafa.
Gratuitous shot of semi shirtless Rafa here just because I love the pic.
Still managing to resist the beer in his presser.
Obviously this would have been a lot easier to write had Rafa managed to defy the odds and lift the trophy. It wasn't to be, though. Rafa admitted that he still wasn't able to play as aggressively as he should nor were his shots coming naturally. More work on this will probably be the main focus once he is home and practising again. As ever, though, he was wonderfully gracious in defeat. He is a lesson to a number of players as to how to conduct yourself on the podium even when you have lost.
His rehabilitation is slower than we would like in an ideal world but we have to be realistic. He has had a tough year with too long when he has not even been able to practise. He must know now that his injuries are behind him so this should give him the confidence to practise hard until those wonderful trademark shots come as naturally to him as breathing. Since his long layoff he has reached a quarter final, three semi finals and a final. It is testament to his innate abilities that he has done that well. Onwards and upwards, Rafa.
