He came, he played, he conquered!!

At the age of 17 he won his first French Open and the deciding rubber that won Spain the Davis Cup. He successfully depended his French Open crowns three times and in the process surpassed Björn Borg's record for the number of consecutive victories on clay - they called him a clay court specialist, but by 2007 he had reached his first Wimbledon final on grass. In 2008, he would become the first man since Borg to win the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back, but only reached the semi-finals of the US Open - they said he couldn't play on hard courts. In January 2009, he won his first Australian Open title, on a hard court, but his renowned mental strength was sorely affected by off-court tribulations and he made an unexpected exit at the French Open, wasn't able to defend his Wimbledon title, only reached the semi-finals of the US Open and lost all his matches at the World Tour finals in November 2009.

Still not at his physical peak, he had to withdraw from his match against Andy Murray at this year's Australian Open, but by the time the clay court season rolled round, he was back to his best, becoming the first man to win all three clay court Masters titles in a season and in doing so he took his tally of titles to eighteen, surpassing Andre Agassi and Roger Federer on seventeen. At the French Open, he swatted aside his 2009 conqueror and illustrated the gulf between himself and Andy Murray in the semi-finals of Wimbledon. His straight sets victory in the final over Tomas Berdych secured him his eighth grand slam and having decided to focus his energies on the one grand slam to elude him, he arrived at Flushing Meadows ready to cement his place in history with a remodelled serve.

Up until the final, he hadn't drop a set, but his opponent who played his best match in the semi-finals to thwart Roger Federer's attempt to appear in a seventh consecutive final, claimed the second set. However, Rafa was not to be denied and he won the third and fourth set to complete the tennis grand slam.

As he still believes he can improve, despite being world number one, having won nine grand slam titles, an Olympic gold medal, eighteen Masters title and three Davis Cups, the chasing pack should be afraid, very afraid!

Felicitaciones Rafa!!

Feliz Compleaños

Sorry I'm a day late, but things got kind of hectic yesterday and I didn't get round to posting like I thought I would. Anyway, by all accounts you had a good day and I know that the icing on the proverbial cake would be a straight sets demolition of the Swede on Sunday to lift your 5th Coupe des Mousquetaires and emulate Björn Borg.

My prediction: Straight sets win for Rafa

PS: Congrats to V & S (doesn't quite have the same ring to it!!) on their doubles' success - they have now amassed 12 grand slam doubles' titles

Viva España

It's shaping up to be quite a sporting year for Spain; they won the women's doubles at Roland Garros, Rafa has continued his tradition of winning the French Open and looks set to become the first man since BB to win Wimbledon after reigning supreme at Roland Garros. The Spanish football team finally overcame their mental frailty to beat the Azzuri and if they meet Russia in the final, Euro 2008 will have a fitting finale.

Vamos Rafa!
Viva España!

All hail the King of Clay, long may he reign

In the face of the Fed's relative slump of this season, El Pirata's steady but sure progress to the summit of the game has been overshadowed by the emergence of the Joker. Even his semi-final loss at the Australian Open was progression on last season where he fell in the quarter-finals. Now the tennis authorities, seemingly bored with his continued domination on clay, decided to make it physically impossible for El Pirata to defend his Masters' titles by scheduling Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome on consecutive weeks. As the defending champion in all of them, it was only natural that he would try to play them all. The blister he sustained in Rome was a consequence of too much playing, but if anybody thinks that it showed a chink in his formidable clay court armor, they've probably inhaled too much clay.

Vamos Rafa! Vamos!

Despite him having taken 3+ hours to see off the Joker, I expect him to dispatch the Fed with relative ease in today's final.

It goes without saying that Rafa is set to become the first man to win four consecutive French Open titles and given his year-on-year progression, he'll go on to win Wimbledon this year.