Spain is one win away from a return trip to the Davis Cup World Group heading into doubles action on Saturday. Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal roll to singles wins on Friday to put the home team in front.
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) d. Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
Verdasco improved to 3-0 lifetime against Dolgopolov by kicking off the Spain vs. Ukraine Davis Cup playoffs tie with a four-set win on Friday afternoon in Madrid. The Spaniard needed two hours and 33 minutes to complete his comeback from a one-set deficit. It was Dolgopolov who got off to an impressive start, breaking twice in the first set without facing a break point on his own serve. Little separated the two players in the second. Verdasco won two more points than his opponent, but he saved one break point and capitalized on one of his three chances before serving it out at 5-4.
Sets three and four, however, were more straightforward for Verdasco. The world No. 33 generally held in far more routine fashion than Dolgopolov in the third even though it was decided by just one break. Verdasco closed it out at 5-4 then dropped only four points in his last four service games. Dolgopolov committed 14 unforced errors in the fourth to end his hopes of ever getting back on track in the match.
Rafael Nadal (ESP) d. Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 6-0, 6-0, 6-4
Playing just four days after winning his second U.S. Open title, Nadal clearly had no interest in staying on the court any longer than necessary. The world No. 2 lost just four games and needed only one hour and 42 minutes to put Spain ahead of the Ukraine 2-0. Stakhovsky, who famously upset Roger Federer at Wimbledon this summer, did not even win a single game in the first two sets. He won a mere total of nine points in the entire second frame of play–six on serve and three on return.
Stakhovsky finally got on the scoreboard in set three, and he did so on four straight service occasions. The world No. 92 fought off five break points along the way, but Nadal finally converted his sixth chance of the set at 4-4 with a perfect passing shot. Nadal held easily one game later to wrap up the proceedings in style. The 13-time Grand Slam champion will team up with Marc Lopez on Saturday in hopes of clinching the tie and sending Spain to the 2014 World Group.
Rafa is going to travel to China through South Korea, where Kia Motors are organizing “Kids Day” on September 27. Right after that he’ll fly to Beijing.
And he is practicing already!
It’s good to hear that Rafa is practicing again.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/qgmu9qn
I imagine most people have watched this 2008 Rafa Story dozens of times but it bears watching again in the light of all that has passed since it was made. Interestingly even then the phrase Greatest Player On The Planet was already in circulation. It has resurfaced again and been used repeatedly over the past 10 days!
I’ve seen this clip a number of times but hadn’t watched it in awhile. Watching it again, I was reminded of one of the things I didn’t like about it. Roger delivered yet another back-handed compliment to Rafa when he talks about how he hoped that when someone took the #1 spot from him that he hoped it would be “not by me being injured or losing” and then says that’s what Rafa managed to do, then qualifies it by saying that maybe he (Roger) couldn’t put up his best fight because of his earlier illness (mono). Throughout his career, Rafa has treated Roger with complete respect and absolute deference in matters related to playing one another. When Rafa defeated Roger at IW this year, you could see at the net that the first thing Rafa did was ask Roger if he was okay. Then Rafa stated in interviews that Roger was probably injured and offered that as a reason for his win. I know that there is mutual respect and admiration between them and perhaps even affection, and with the passing of another 5 years Roger has been more accepting of Rafa’s domination, but to this day there still seems to always be an underlying current of slight resentment on Roger’s part and Rafa just continues to be magnanimous and kind.
@Jpacnw, it’s true, all you say. But you know what, I am so over Roger and his fan’s bad behaviour. There is truth into the saying: you are the company you keep. Fed’s fans are so like him, nasty, jealous, petty, un-gracious. There are true and pleasant Fedfans, unfortunately they are in the minority. The same is true of Djokovic. What is strange is both Roger’s parents, who appear to be the epitome of grace, raised this character.
Karma truly is a bi@ch. Rafa is now enjoying probably the best years of his career. Touch wood he manages his physical ailments so he realises his full potential.
The best part? Rafa is providing exactly the best retort to his detractors, winning on court, with grace. Roger and Novak are being exposed for what they really are: entitled, boastful and curmudgeonly. I don’t have to defend Rafa, he is doing that so eloquently on his own.
Icing on the cake? With each win by Rafa, the haters spiral further and further into their self-made concoction of hate, resentment and jealousy. There is a God.
Only Muzza, of the Big 3, is a true friend to Rafa.
@rafaisthebest: To me, with Roger and Rafa, it’s like Roger is the older brother who doesn’t want to admit that the younger brother has surpassed him and Rafa is the younger one who continues to idolize him despite the resentment of the elder. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they clearly have professional respect for one another and that Roger may even have affection for Rafa, but I think that’s due more to the effort on Rafa’s part. Witness Rafa’s recent interview with Charlie Rose where he sweetly brings up his rivalry with Roger even though Charlie somewhat dismisses it and Rafa also completely downplays his winning record against Roger. It’s classic Rafa…..no ego, respect for his peers, no qualifying statements. In another forum, one person who apparently wasn’t very familiar with Rafa’s personality, commented on the Rose interview by writing, “Is this guy for real? He’s so humble and gracious it’s unbelievable.” Yes, he is that humble and gracious. For all of us who’ve followed Rafa, and I have from the very beginning, we know that’s exactly who he is.
As for Andy, yes.. I think he and Rafa are truly friends. They are both “guys” who like guy things and share common interests in doing guy stuff. Andy also does not suffer from ego problems and is more than willing to share any spotlight with Rafa.
Rafa was the most rooted player on social media during the US Open.
—Throughout the 2013 U.S. Open, global social media monitoring leader Synthesio wastracking the social media buzz of all the players with a U.S. Open real-time online leaderboard.
Now the recap results are in, revealing which tennis stars’ digital popularity corresponded to their success on the court. Guess who was the most rooted for player on social media? —
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2013/09/20/and-the-most-popular-player-during-us-open-is-rafael-nadal/
Rafa has been the most popular tennis player on Twitter for a long time. In the beginning of September, the official Twitter account of Rafa surpassed five million followers. (He created his first tweet on August 3, 2011).
On Facebook, he has 11,997,910 supporters (“likes”). Soon 12 millions!
RITB and JP
You have both articulated what I wanted to say but I chose to be discreet and let the clip say it for me 😉
The first time I watched the film I was eating breakfast and nearly choked on my croissant!
Until that moment I’d always been fairly neutral about Federer – admiring his tennis but never warming to the man. From then on I began to see him in a different light and finally understood why many Rafans were antagonistic towards him and a certain sector of his fan base.
Furthermore his dismissive remarks and the unpleasant mind games he played with Andy added further fuel to the fire as far as I was concerned. There was a certain poetic justice that it should be Andy who dashed his dream of a Golden Slam.
ed,
went through the same thing
became a rafan in a few minutes when discovering him during the RG05 semi and like fed
then one day the penny dropped re fed’s character and have not been able to dislodge that from my mind while still admiring everything else about him (minus his not understanding / wanting to keep adjusting/improving continuously and thus selling himself somewhat short)
Rafa reached 12 million fans on Facebook today, just a few minutes ago!!! (I am proud to be on of them.) He got over 160,000 new fans in the last 5 weeks!!!
Vamos tennis virtuoso Rafa!!!
Correction: I am proud to be ONE of them.