Almost 20 Vamos Brigade members (so far) have flocked to this year’s Masters tournament at Indian Wells, quite a few for the first time.


They have traveled from all across the US and from as far away as Norway and the UK to see Rafa practice and play, to cheer him on in his singles and doubles matches with some creative cheering gear,


and, as a by-product, to boost the economies of Cathedral City, Palm Desert, La Quinta and Indian Wells, California, as they buy food, sundries, and lots of Rafa clothing and memorabilia.


MAC and jen were first on the scene, despite having crossed an ocean and eight time zones. Since her arrival, MAC has showered us with photos.

(Many of the photos contain large watermarks because tennis bloggers and members of other tennis boards have been taking MAC's, bluebird's and jen's photos and posting them without attribution - or even claiming them as their own. )

MAC's photo studies cover all aspects of Rafa's practice sessions,





She has several "pensive" series and one (so far) involving lip balm.



jen captured an amusing moment on the practice courts. (I'll leave you to come up with your own caption for this one.)


jen is also sharing her fabulous videos. In case you wondered, this is what it's like when Rafa arrives on a practice court:



MAC and jen were on the scene when Rafa first wore his ¡VAM10,000,000S! shirt to acknowledge his reaching the 10 million fans milestone on his Facebook profile.


Thank goodness we had VBers on-site for Rafa's doubles match on the first day of the main tournament. Rafa and Marc Lopez' opponents were the third-seeded team of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic. Inexplicably, none of the matches from the first day of the tournament were televised, so no livestreams were available. We are, therefore, very grateful to MAC, jen and bluebird for providing us with some lovely images from that match (which Rafa and Marc won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4).



At the time that I prepared this, Rafa had just won his second-round match against Leonardo Mayer, 6-1, 6-3, in an hour and 15 minutes. Rafa looked sharp and, according to dafunk, who was in a position to know, his footwork was "sublime." We're looking forward to seeing the photos and videos that our intrepid members took during that match, and reading about their Rafa-encounters during the rest of the tournament.

¡VAMOS!