Western & Southern Financial Group Masters
Cincinnati 2009

Cincinnati with its fast courts, high temperatures and ridiculous humidity is a tournament many of us normally view with ambivalence. As Rafa said "It's difficult conditions for me. My results here in this tournament say that. My best result was last year, semi-finals. It's always difficult for me to play a good tournament here."

This year we approached it with even more caution than normal. His performance in Montreal last week had been about the best we'd hoped for after the injury lay-off and we weren't expecting too much more this week. Our hopes were for a few more matches under his belt and a gradual return to form. With no doubles this time all we had to go on were reports from our highly enthusiastic members on the spot who battled the fans and the heat to get us some great pictures. The general consensus was that he was enjoying himself. Good though it was to hear about the practises it was even better (though galling for those of us unable to be there) to hear that he was practising shirtless.

In his pre-tournament press conference Rafa said "The important thing is move every day a little bit better and try to hit a little bit the ball every day with a little bit more confidence, no?" That's exactly what we were looking out for going into his first match. After what we will always refer to as Seppigate in Rotterdam last year the news that Andreas Seppi would be his first opponent didn't exactly fill us with good cheer. It turned out to be a continuation of the kind of game he was playing in Montreal but it was a good example of Rafa's determination to win. He hung in there to battle out a win in two tie-breaks 7-6(4), 7-6(3). In his post match press conference Rafa admitted he wasn't playing at his best but said "I was fighting every point, and that's the important thing, no? "

I got up in the week small hours to watch his second round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu. After the first few games I was beginning to regret the loss of sleep and felt that his chances of reaching the second week at the US Open were pretty slight. But then a miracle occurred. In the sixth game he dashed across court for one of his full stretch retrieves to curl round the net into the corner and then shot back to hit a backhand winner. That just galvanized him. After that he played like the Rafa we have all grown to love over the past few years. In the second set his winners far outweighed his unforced errors. It was a joy to watch. And even more joy to see how happy he was after the 7-5, 6-2 win. "I finished playing better because I changed the directions easier than yesterday. In the beginning I only was playing cross backhand, and then I finished playing down the line, too. That's very important for my game, to have the confidence to change the place of the shots. Very happy to be in quarterfinals, because I think that's important for my physical training, too, no?"

The quarter final against Tomas Berdych was definitely worth getting up for. He's an opponent that Rafa says is "always tough" and a 1-3 head to head record against him on hard courts would appear to confirm this. Rafa came out strong and rushed into the lead with an opening break of serve. After that although Berdych regrouped a little he never looked like breaking Rafa's serve. The final score of 6-4, 7-5 makes it look a lot closer than I felt watching it. "I think I improved every day a little bit more, so today I played very good match," said Rafa after the match, "Winning against Tomas on this surface is a very good win for me, so I'm very happy for that. When I arrived here, I didn't expect to be in this round."

I slept through the alarm on Saturday night and by the time I came to with a start just after 1:35am rafa was already a set and a break down in his semi final. I wasn't shocked by this and surprised myself by not being that upset when he lost the match two games later. I never thought he would go to particular efforts to win this match. Novak Djokovic had a lot to prove on a surface that suits his game well. For Rafa to win he would have had to be prepared for a long war of attrition. He'd already proved to himself that he does still have the ability to dash around the court for winners and the important thing for the US Open is for him to be fresh and confident. I stress, though, that this is my personal view.

"These two weeks, winning three matches here and two matches in Montreal, winning five matches and playing seven matches in total, it's enough matches I think," said Rafa regarding his preparation. "It's another step. Physically and mentally it's difficult for me to be ready. But I think this match is going to be a good experience for me right now to try to make this step in the US Open."


In all Rafa's performance this week was much better than we expected. He played some marvellous shots and a couple of clever matches. He should feel justifiably confident for the US Open. Enjoy your week of preparation, Rafa.

¡ Vamos !