Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Rome 2009

The relentless European clay court season brought Rafa to Rome for his third consecutive week of competition.

The start was somewhat slow, though, as the rain we thought we'd left behind in Monte Carlo disrupted both play and practise for the first couple of days. He did, of course, talk to the media as soon as he arrived...


and had some fun at the kids village


His first match was against Andreas Seppi who had flummoxed us all by beating Rafa at their last meeting in Rotterdam 2008. (An incident forever referred to as Seppigate on the board.) No such chance this time although he did scare us by dropping serve in the opening game. That shocked him into an immediate break back and despite some spirited opposition from Seppi he never looked back. As is the norm for opponents of Rafa, Seppi played well above his normal form but it just wasn't enough. Rafa gave much better than he got and there were a couple of shots that had the commentators gasping in admiration.


Rafa the winner 6-2, 6-3.


Next it was time for a bit of revenge. None of us will forget the unpleasant mimicking that Robin Soderling chose to employ during their last marathon match at Wimbledon 2 years ago. Rafa let him have the first game but that was it. Like a man on a mission he destroyed him 6-1. 6-0.


And didn't he look pleased afterwards?


It was Fernando Verdasco in the quarter finals. Memories of the Australian Open semi final haunted a lot of us. Although Rafa had won that we all knew how tough it had been. This match was no easier. He broke in the first game but then got immediately broken back. Many of the games were really tough and Rafa had to save another 5 break points before coming through the winner 6-3, 6-3.

The best summary of his performance comes from Rafa himself - "Today I played two or three metres behind the baseline, so I have to play more inside if I want to play a little bit better. That's the only thing, the most important thing for me right now. In the end, it's an attitude. It's okay to return four metres behind, because (Verdasco) had a very good kick and his topspin was very high. But after the return, I have to go inside and I have to play a long return, and the next ball I have to play inside, from the baseline, or one metre behind, not another time three metres. That was the mistake today. Normally I return from three metres and after I go inside, and today I didn't. I have to. If it's lefty or a righty, it doesn't matter."


Immediately after the match he dashed over to the Fede Lux stand to present a signed racquet to Paola Luzzi whose son, Federico (a former top 100 player), died of leukaemia last October. The racquet will be auctioned by the Fondazione Federico Luzzi to help raise money for leukaemia research.


The semi final against Fernando Gonzalez was a little more straightforward. Rafa took his own advice and played more agressively to win comfortably 6-3, 6-3.


Lest I forget, no page is complete without a gratuitous shirtless image.


So we were onto a second final of the year against Novak Djokovic. Two weeks ago in Monte Carlo it had been pretty hard fought. The first set was a nail-biter with Rafa twice failing to serve it out but he upped his game in the tiebreak and ran through the second set in much more dominant form.

He took his record fourth Rome title 7-6(2), 6-2.


Once again -

Enhorabuena, Rafa