I can't pretend I'm anything other than disappointed that Rafa wasn't able to defend his title but there was a lot to enjoy this week.

His first match posed a couple of existentialist questions. "Does a tennis match really happen if no-one can watch it on TV or on a livestream?" "Does Rafa grunt if none of us can hear it?" Still, those of us in those parts of the world where matches in Japan mean foregoing our beauty sleep stayed awake to follow the live scores and provided our own interpretation of what was happening.

Since photographs did emerge, I guess the first question is answered.



Rafa beat Go Soeda, 6-3, 6-2. Maybe snowgoose (our VBer on the spot who took the following picture) can answer question two.



None of us are that thrilled when we see Milos Raonic's name in Rafa's part of the draw because he has a monster serve and an even more monster amount of hyperbole surrounding him. The only other time Rafa has played him was at exactly the same stage in this tournament last year (which Rafa won, 6-4, 6-4). On this occasion the score was 7-5, 6-3 in Rafa's favour.



Once again, snowgoose got herself perfectly placed at the end of the match.


Santiago Giraldo posed a different sort of problem in the quarter finals. He appeared to be channeling another player entirely as he played the classic "match of his life" to push Rafa all the way to a tiebreak in the first set.



It wasn't enough, though, and Rafa won, 7-6(6) 6-3.




Mardy Fish is another player receiving a lot of attention this year. After more than 10 years on the tour he finally broke into the top ten this year and is keen to make it to the World Tour Finals for the first time. Coupled with the fact that Fish had beaten Rafa for the first time in their last meeting in Cincinnati, many pundits were gleefully predicting an upset (or at best a three set win for Rafa).


To be fair, Fish did bring his best game to the first set but he then crumbled completely, letting Rafa take 9 of the last 10 games for a 7-5 6-1 victory.


I refuse to dwell on the final (he lost to Andy Murray 6-3, 2-6, 0-6). But at least it provided us with another opportunity to witness how wonderful Rafa is in defeat. That is a brilliant sight to see and one of the many reasons why we continue to adore this man.

Good luck in Shanghai, Rafa
¡Vamos!