Ricky: you sound cautiously optimistic that Rafa could pull some surprises. It will all be down to mental strength. My hunch is that Soderling, having taken his revenge at RG for the humiliating drubbing at Rome a few weeks before, might buckle in the huge arena atmostphere. Furthermore, the crowd will be rooting for Rafa - Soderling did not endear himself to the English fans when he took the mickey out of Rafa during their their Wimbledon SF.

soderling is the least of rafa's worry here in the rr's imho....soderling can be unconsistent in his big matches nd rafa thrives on his consistency....it might be easier for him to beat soderling here is the sod is not at his best....

the worry for me is davydenko nd djokovic,both have the best 2 handers..they take the ball on the rise nd attack rafa's forehand pretty well.......they also play a lot high percentage tennis compared to others......i feel rafa has to play out of his skin to reach semi's

if he reaches the semi's his task will be a bit easier...he has a respectable hard court record against federer(3-3).......nd against murray too.........

PLAY WELL MAN.......VAMOS!!!!!

I find that predictions always second guess what's gone on in the immediate past, so they are not really prdictions. Earlier in the year, everyone was writing Djokovic off blaming his new racquet, and last year this time, Murray was the flavour of the month, so much so that he was the favourite to wing the AO.

Rafa has been rusty since his come back, he has said that he needs time to get his rythm back, I can only hope that he does so for the WTF, but as to who will be in form at the O2, it's anybodys guess. He has played some diabolical matches recently, the oe against Davydenko wa sone he should have won, for some reason he simply wasn't attacking, probably because he was't confident enough because he says he wasn't feeling the ball.

However, I'll certainly be keeping my fingers crossed for him next week!

VAMOS RAFA!

I think Rafa has chances against both Soderling and Davydenko. Rafa should learn from the match between Lopez and Soderling and see how Lopez defeated Soderling. Besides serving well, Lopez forced Soderling to remain at the back of the court and then Lopez will come to the net and finish the point. Soderling is still not very good at the net. Against Davydenko, Rafa would have to rely on his passing shots, and sometimes the lobs, as Davydenko is the opposite of Soderling; he likes to take the ball early and comes to the net very often. If Rafa can play the way he did against Tsonga, mixing up his serves well, come to the net and volley well, I think he CAN beat Soderling and Davydenko.

Against Nole, Rafa really needs to find his forehand down-the-line passing shots, as he gets rather predictable with his forehand crosscourt shots. I think he did not use that down-the-line passing shots against Nole in Paris, a sign that he was not confident then.

I would not write Rafa off as I think he has a chance to reach the SF. If he proves me right, than anything beyond that is possible, a final or maybe even winning the whole tournament!

PS. Its strange that both Rafa and Fed end up in the wrong group. Rafa can deal with Murray & Verdasco better than Nole and Soderling; while Fed can do better against Nole and Davydenko, rather than against Murray and Del Potro.

I agree that Nadal has the best chance of beating Soderling. However, I think DAVYDENKO is the only one against whom Nadal controls his own destiny.

In other words, if both Nadal AND Soderling play great, I think Soderling wins on an indoor hard court. If both Nadal and Davydenko play great, Nadal can still win because Davydenko cant blow Nadal off of a hard court.

However, the chances of Soderling playing great are a lot slimmer than Davydenko playing great, thus Nadal has a better chance of beating Soderling.

Ricky, love your insight and pieces ... don't usually comment as I don't enjoy the tit-for-tats on such forums but I thought I would point out a factual error you might like to correct... the epic semi-final you speak of between Nadal and Djokovic was not at Rome but at Madrid Masters (I know because I was at the tournament, watching the match -- amazing it was) and yes, the final was a gasp. Sadly so, because I had been looking forward to something amazing by Nadal. Alas no.


Cheers ...

Nia, of course you are right! I mis-typed.

Thanks for the heads up!

Ricky, you did a great job to put together a realistic and interesting Rafa?s profile! I actually enjoy reading about Rafa and anything written on and about Rafa sure will attract my attention. I must make one correction, though, it might have been a typo, but Rafa unfortunately did not reach semifinal in Miami; he got beaten by DelPo in that for me so frustrating quarterfinal. I know because I was there waiting to see both semifinals and finals, but I got to watch Nole and Murray instead. By the way, Nole completely disappointed me back then...he was leading 5:2 in second set and lost it eventually 7:5. And all of it came after his great win over Federer. Well, that is mainly why I believe Rafa, if at his best, can beat Nole even if he is on the run and full of confidence. It all depends on Rafa and his game

natashao - thanks

and yes, Murray was way better than Djokovic at that point of the year. Interesting how things change.

rafa practises today wid roger at 2 pm!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6926050.ece

vrael, thanks for the link, very good article/interview. Poor Rafa, the timing for his parents problems couldn't have been worse for him, just at the time when he should have shorn at RG, and defended his title, but that's life, I'm sure his parents did not intend to hurt him even more by harming his career. Having been brought up in a tight knit family, it must have been a great shock to his whole perspective of life for this to happen, but time will heal, and it will help him to grow up.

sodemort will not get lucky twice against rafa. although the indoor court speed suits sodemort, rafa is the better and more consistent player. he can win matches even when playing badly. i'll pick my fav to take his first match. how can i not.

vamos rafa!

haha sodemort, one some other site i've seen sodomizer :)

welcome carrie.....sodemort is fine but sodomizer???? thts ugly...lolzzz

did the person who named him that way really knew wat he was saying????

NADAL PRAISES CHENNAI

Mumbai: Rafael Nadal was all praise for the people of India and asked the world to learn a lesson or two from them. In a recent interview to Spanish publication La Vanguardia's, the world No.2 tennis player said he saw a lot of happiness among Indians despite poverty.
The Spaniard, who had come to India for Chennai Open in 2007 and 2008, was inspired by the 'genuineness among the Indians'.
Nadal was quizzed on what needed to change to live in an ideal world to which he said, "Always we speak of poverty, but, for example, I have been in India, in Chennai, several times, and I can assure you that inside the poverty I see happiness in the faces of the people. And that we should apply to all of us."
He then continued: "There, where people have practically nothing and live in the streets, you see the faces and they do not deceive you. Here (in Spain), many people have practically everything and tomorrow you can see them going to work and their faces do not reflect happiness. . . We do not value what we have; I'm like this, too."
Nadal also spoke on religion. "Virtually all the bad things that happen in life are the faults of radicalism of any kind, that triggers problems that could be avoided. You can have hobbies, likes, beliefs, but always with respect for the opinions of others, without fail. Similarly with religion, one can be religious, atheist, Christian, Muslim, whatever, but all the atrocities that have been caused by religion are too much. For me religion is the biggest killer in history."
Nadal, who has had a mixed year, will play next at the season-ending London Masters and be part of the Spanish Davis Cup squad that will face Czech Republic in the final next month.

just posted this because his words touched me.....im an indian,nd im very happy that rafa is doing his bit to promote tennis in my country too....this guy named rafa nadal has been my idol since i was 15 yrs old..he has given me a lot of happines in these 4-5 yrs that i have followed him nd he still does.....its been so difficult for the rafanatic in me to see him not play wimbledon,lose to people he shouldnt but what still makes him my favourite is that way he conducts himself,his attitude,his thoughts about the world in general.......this guy is just pure class......VAMOS!!!!!!!

Rafa is just an all round great guy, period! He is the kind of son any mother would want, I hope they make him a UN Ambassador one day.

I'm already an avid Rafan, as I don't need to point out here, but the more I read about him the more I'm proud to be his fan.

Good article Ricky..like you say "expect the unexpected"...he is , afterall, RAPHAEL NADAL...Still No 1 in the hearts of the people.. VAMOS! RAFA.