Chennai 2008
Two of the things that we asked to see happen in 2008 were for Rafa to do well on hard courts and to get back the spark. In his performances in Chennai this week Rafa has already shown that he will more than meet our expectations.
That epic semi final, whilst leaving a number of us as quivering heaps by our PCs, was a marvellous return to the kind of spirit Rafa showed back in 2005.
The week had started fairly quietly. He didn't show his best form in his first match; but then he didn't need to. The next few rounds showed an increasing confidence and an improvment to close to his best form.
The semi final was the pinnacle of the week, though. Nearly four hours of the most amazing rallies and terrific nail-biting drama. His recovery from being all those match points down was the ultimate demonstration of his ability to fight right up until the fat lady sings. He kept so positive through all the missed opportunities to break serve and his body language never gave anything away - apart from a very uncharacteristic reaction to what he saw as a poor line call in the second set tiebreak. He is a marvel. His celebration at the end of that match showed how important it was to him to pull out that win.
The only sad thing is that it took so much out of him he had nothing left for the final. We were pleased to see, though, that he didn't appear too upset by the loss. We think that he and Youzhny both knew that this match was not at all representative of his form.
An article about Chennai would not be complete without some reference to the terrific support Rafa got from the crowd. Most notably that wonderful little girl, Ashita, who captured everyone's hearts with her totally unselfconscious display of emotions which so mirrored our own.
How perfect that they should honour her in the trophy ceremony and let her meet her idol. That must surely have made her year.
As usual we had some of the Vamos Brigade on site to cheer Rafa on for us. We are waiting to hear from Zara! who was working at the tournament but meanwhile you can check out mamata123's blog.
So now it's on to the Australian Open. Rafa should be pleased with his preparation and we will certainly be right behind him.