A message from It Must Be Love; meeting Rafael Nadal, my birthday, some tennis analysis

Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the nice summer and the tennis

For those of you who may be new to the forum and don't know me, I'd like to introduce myself as IMBL. I love tennis, and my favourite player is probably Nadal.

I apologise in advance as this article may be quite long, it may take a few minutes or so to read. Anyway;

I think we'll start off about my trip to Mallorca. I went with my friends, on a week long trip to both Barcelona and Mallorca, in early August. The weather was great, nice beaches; as you'd expect in that part of the world. At this time of course I had expected Nadal to be in Toronto; but due to his wrist injury he couldn't play. When I first heard the news he was injured, I was too concerned about his withdrawal to consider what this could mean for my trip.
Funnily enough it was a text from my friend who is a Federer fan mocking me that changed everything. He texted me 'I'm really looking forward to watching Roger in Toronto haha, hope Nadal has fun sulking in Manacor.' It was then I realised; after quietly uttering some profanities towards myself asking why I hadn't done so earlier, I immediately started making enquiries on whether Nadal was training at all, and where he would train.
I went on facebook and the good news was that he was indeed training, albeit only his forehand (right wrist meant no BH); but nowhere was there any detail on where he was in Manacor. I asked a few of my friends who follow tennis, and no one had a clue.

Eventually I logged onto 606v2 and dropped Lydian a PM, he was my last hope (I thought to myself if Lydian doesn't know anything, I'll just roam the streets of Mallorca with 'Donde esta Rafito' tattooed to my back, and hope some taxi driver takes pity). Lydian replied that he wasn't exactly sure, but it was the only tennis complex in Manacor with an indoor hard court, and the locals should be able to lead me to it.
Next stop was the Palma tourist office. 'Hi, can I get the train timetable to Manacor.' 'Ah Manacor, do you have family there' 'No, I'm a tourist.' 'A tourist? In Manacor? It's a residential town.' 'Yep I'm going sightseeing there actually, can I have that train timetable then, thanks.'

So the next day I set off at 7am, got the bus to some train station, and managed to get the train to Manacor without mucking up. It was in Manacor however, that I started running into language issues. No one there spoke any English it appeared. Now I did GCSE Spanish 2 years ago, some of my conversations felt like when you're doing the hardest bit of the listening exam and just staring blankly into the the air, everything going in one ear and out of the other.
Somehow I managed to remember a bit from my lessons, and soon I was off in a taxi to some place. It was 9am at this point. I reached, and the complex was totally empty. There was one big indoor court, and many outdoor courts, all in pristine condition. I went to the toilet, before coming back out sitting next to the car park. I wasn't even sure this was the right place, forget whether Nadal would come and train on that day. Then after around 45 minutes some people came, a very excited looking teenager and a middle aged woman. They both had autograph equipment, and spoke no english or spanish. That was a good sign atleast, surely they've come for Nadal's autograph ? Then many fans started streaming in, all with cameras and pens etc.

After waiting another 30 minutes in what felt like boiling conditions, a Mercedes came ambling into the car park. Out emerged Uncle Toni, with two young children who I guessed were his kids. He smiled and said hola before heading into the indoor tennis court, the door to which he closed. So we were still waiting for Rafa, for a pretty long while. At one point I thought perhaps Uncle Toni had given up on Rafa, and was going to instead seriously take up training with his kids, I tried to listen in to the indoor hard court for the acid test of this theory: to see if I could hear 'But Toniiii, I don't want to play left handed, I'm right handed'- but no call like this came.
Then suddenly a white Ferrari roared in to the car park. Everyone started screaming and flashing their cameras in random directions, as Nadal got out and said hi, before walking to the courts.

The good thing was he actually trained in the outdoor courts, and they were open, so we could actually stand in the adjacent courts and see him train. He takes training really serious, that much was obvious, and he was cranking up his forehand often. He was hitting the ball very flat too, much flatter than he hits in matches. There was one cool moment where his partner mishit a ball into our court, I got the ball and rolled it to Rafa, and he smiled and said thankyou, polite guy that he is.
At the end everyone got autographs and selfies with him, including me! (PM me for some photos) He was very good with it actually, staying for like 10 minutes afterwards to make sure all his fans had what they wanted, before driving off in his Ferrari.

Anyway that was the highlight of my trip to Spain.  
I got back, and the only other thing to note was my birthday, well it wasn't the most relaxed one. It was one day before A-level results day, I had my offer of triple A from Imperial medicine, and I spent a bit of my birthday reading how people had missed their grades and how it ruined everything. Which was nice.
Luckily for me the next day, I checked UCAS very early in the morning, and I had got 2A*s and 2As, so I had met and beat my offer I was nearly as pleased as I was when I met Nadal.

Now, for my thoughts on tennis.
I must say firstly I have been really impressed by Federer's great attitude this year. He had a really tough 2013 which was hindered by problems with his back. However hes shown great determination when many people wrote him off (and I have to admit I was one of them when he lost to Robredo last year), trained as hard as ever; and was rewarded with a fantastic year. He was very close to Wimbledon, and for me next year his best bet of a Grand Slam still remains Wimbledon.
As for the semis, I was hugely surprised at Nishikori and Cilic winning so easily. Nishikori has huge talent as we have known for a while, and he was all over Nadal in Madrid before injury... If he can avoid more physical problems he is going to world number one. Cilic meanwhile has a monster game, he's generating power like del Potro did, and he was scary against Federer. I expect him to be inconsistent in the future, but to win Slams.

And lastly onto Nadal. I have to say, I am very very pessimistic about his chances of winning Slams in the future. Firstly it seems his body is breaking apart; wrist, knee, back- his bones are creaking. Secondly I think he's in permanent decline now, he's aged 28 but started as a pro very young, so his 'typical tennis age' is even older. I must say I am very grateful to him for providing such great moments for his fans- I will remember his career for the best bits although there were many low points.

Ok, that must have been a long read, so thanks for reading

Amritia

Amritia... Very glad to see that you met Nadal. And thank you sharing your "special" day. Congratulations on 2A* + 2A as well.

All in all a wonderful vacation for you even if Nadal is preparing for the post-USO tennis sessions.

Do you know which tourney he is expected to be back? Paris? Or will he go play some Clay?

Will send you a PM for the best selfie of you and Nadal, in your opinion.

Do you have any photos of the outside/entrance to the complex? We drive past a club in Manacor every year on our Majorca holiday and I've always wondered if that's where he trains.

Awesome to meet a hero, congrats

Hi IMBL Thank's for sharing the details of what sounds like a very memorable holiday. It must have been great to get such a close up view of a Rafa practice. Great that he doesn't mind the public watching. I'm tempted to nip over myself to check when he starts hitting dhbh's Try not to be too pessimistic as I'm sure he wouldn't be practicing if he wasn't confident of a return.

Also for the brilliant A level results and securing your place at Uni. I'm not surprised that someone with such good taste is also clever

Thanks LF Yep sure, drop me a PM, I can get the photos up using v2 system

Man who's location is in bed with Galted's missus- the location of the complex is 5 minutes away by taxi from the train station- it's on a side road away from the town.

Thanks DV2

Hawyeke Muchas Gracias. Nadal is going to come back some this autumn, probably for Shanghai although we can't be sure. I'll send you a PM, just taking time to get the photos uploaded on the site.

Hi, I hope you are well.

I got ABC and an A in general studies myself, it was a great result for me and good enough for what I wanted, I wouldn't have been able to get into Imperial but I didn't really fancy London anyway at the time. Sheffield was cool.

A good article, apart from your predictable low expectation for Rafa maybe! He'll be back.

Henman Bill wrote:Hi, I hope you are well.

I got ABC and an A in general studies myself, it was a great result for me and good enough for what I wanted, I wouldn't have been able to get into Imperial but I didn't really fancy London anyway at the time. Sheffield was cool.

A good article, apart from your predictable low expectation for Rafa maybe! He'll be back.

Thanks HB, yep I'm well

True, many people don't like London unis and prefer more campus type unis- and I can understand why; it's a different environment.

Yep, I do think Nadal will be back, and of course he'll be fighting hard and doing his most to be competitive.

Hey IMBL, thanks for sharing the story and fantastic that you got to meet Rafa. You must've been made up - and nice grades to make medicine at Imperial, very prestigious! I'm sure you'll do well there, congratulations

Prepare to work hard, enjoy the nightlife, hate the laundrette and appreciate home cooking more than ever and have a great time too, of course.

It Must Be Love wrote:Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the nice summer and the tennis

For those of you who may be new to the forum and don't know me, I'd like to introduce myself as IMBL. I love tennis, and my favourite player is probably Nadal.

I apologise in advance as this article may be quite long, it may take a few minutes or so to read. Anyway;

I think we'll start off about my trip to Mallorca. I went with my friends, on a week long trip to both Barcelona and Mallorca, in early August. The weather was great, nice beaches; as you'd expect in that part of the world. At this time of course I had expected Nadal to be in Toronto; but due to his wrist injury he couldn't play. When I first heard the news he was injured, I was too concerned about his withdrawal to consider what this could mean for my trip.
Funnily enough it was a text from my friend who is a Federer fan mocking me that changed everything. He texted me 'I'm really looking forward to watching Roger in Toronto haha, hope Nadal has fun sulking in Manacor.' It was then I realised; after quietly uttering some profanities towards myself asking why I hadn't done so earlier, I immediately started making enquiries on whether Nadal was training at all, and where he would train.
I went on facebook and the good news was that he was indeed training, albeit only his forehand (right wrist meant no BH); but nowhere was there any detail on where he was in Manacor. I asked a few of my friends who follow tennis, and no one had a clue.

Eventually I logged onto 606v2 and dropped Lydian a PM, he was my last hope (I thought to myself if Lydian doesn't know anything, I'll just roam the streets of Mallorca with 'Donde esta Rafito' tattooed to my back, and hope some taxi driver takes pity). Lydian replied that he wasn't exactly sure, but it was the only tennis complex in Manacor with an indoor hard court, and the locals should be able to lead me to it.
Next stop was the Palma tourist office. 'Hi, can I get the train timetable to Manacor.' 'Ah Manacor, do you have family there' 'No, I'm a tourist.' 'A tourist? In Manacor? It's a residential town.' 'Yep I'm going sightseeing there actually, can I have that train timetable then, thanks.'

So the next day I set off at 7am, got the bus to some train station, and managed to get the train to Manacor without mucking up. It was in Manacor however, that I started running into language issues. No one there spoke any English it appeared. Now I did GCSE Spanish 2 years ago, some of my conversations felt like when you're doing the hardest bit of the listening exam and just staring blankly into the the air, everything going in one ear and out of the other.
Somehow I managed to remember a bit from my lessons, and soon I was off in a taxi to some place. It was 9am at this point. I reached, and the complex was totally empty. There was one big indoor court, and many outdoor courts, all in pristine condition. I went to the toilet, before coming back out sitting next to the car park. I wasn't even sure this was the right place, forget whether Nadal would come and train on that day. Then after around 45 minutes some people came, a very excited looking teenager and a middle aged woman. They both had autograph equipment, and spoke no english or spanish. That was a good sign atleast, surely they've come for Nadal's autograph ? Then many fans started streaming in, all with cameras and pens etc.

After waiting another 30 minutes in what felt like boiling conditions, a Mercedes came ambling into the car park. Out emerged Uncle Toni, with two young children who I guessed were his kids. He smiled and said hola before heading into the indoor tennis court, the door to which he closed. So we were still waiting for Rafa, for a pretty long while. At one point I thought perhaps Uncle Toni had given up on Rafa, and was going to instead seriously take up training with his kids, I tried to listen in to the indoor hard court for the acid test of this theory: to see if I could hear 'But Toniiii, I don't want to play left handed, I'm right handed'- but no call like this came.
Then suddenly a white Ferrari roared in to the car park. Everyone started screaming and flashing their cameras in random directions, as Nadal got out and said hi, before walking to the courts.

The good thing was he actually trained in the outdoor courts, and they were open, so we could actually stand in the adjacent courts and see him train. He takes training really serious, that much was obvious, and he was cranking up his forehand often. He was hitting the ball very flat too, much flatter than he hits in matches. There was one cool moment where his partner mishit a ball into our court, I got the ball and rolled it to Rafa, and he smiled and said thankyou, polite guy that he is.
At the end everyone got autographs and selfies with him, including me! (PM me for some photos) He was very good with it actually, staying for like 10 minutes afterwards to make sure all his fans had what they wanted, before driving off in his Ferrari.

Anyway that was the highlight of my trip to Spain.  
I got back, and the only other thing to note was my birthday, well it wasn't the most relaxed one. It was one day before A-level results day, I had my offer of triple A from Imperial medicine, and I spent a bit of my birthday reading how people had missed their grades and how it ruined everything. Which was nice.
Luckily for me the next day, I checked UCAS very early in the morning, and I had got 2A*s and 2As, so I had met and beat my offer I was nearly as pleased as I was when I met Nadal.

Now, for my thoughts on tennis.
I must say firstly I have been really impressed by Federer's great attitude this year. He had a really tough 2013 which was hindered by problems with his back. However hes shown great determination when many people wrote him off (and I have to admit I was one of them when he lost to Robredo last year), trained as hard as ever; and was rewarded with a fantastic year. He was very close to Wimbledon, and for me next year his best bet of a Grand Slam still remains Wimbledon.
As for the semis, I was hugely surprised at Nishikori and Cilic winning so easily. Nishikori has huge talent as we have known for a while, and he was all over Nadal in Madrid before injury... If he can avoid more physical problems he is going to world number one. Cilic meanwhile has a monster game, he's generating power like del Potro did, and he was scary against Federer. I expect him to be inconsistent in the future, but to win Slams.

And lastly onto Nadal. I have to say, I am very very pessimistic about his chances of winning Slams in the future. Firstly it seems his body is breaking apart; wrist, knee, back- his bones are creaking. Secondly I think he's in permanent decline now, he's aged 28 but started as a pro very young, so his 'typical tennis age' is even older. I must say I am very grateful to him for providing such great moments for his fans- I will remember his career for the best bits although there were many low points.

Ok, that must have been a long read, so thanks for reading

Amritia

I am jealous, partially as you got to go to Mallorca and I am stuck at work, partly as you got to see Nadal and partly because my girlfriend is in Mallorca right now which makes me wish I were there all the more!

As a side note, I graduated from imperial in medicine, and was on the SU there etc so if you want any tips or help please feel free to send me a PM

Oh Congrats Red.

Oh might be smoking now

Great story, wonderful to meet Nadal. And also I am glad to see that you are back. Very good to have a well informed and energetic poster. Also I am not that pessimistic about Nadal's chances. He just needs to get back in shape and does what he does best which is winning.

It Must Be Love wrote: I love tennis, and my favourite player is probably Nadal.

I did smile at this. Probably?!

Good to hear from you, and great story. I'd love to watch any of the top guys training. Weird to think that Rafa probably has a little gaggle of fans watching every time he trains!

Put the pictures up in this thread, I'm sure everyone would like to see them.

I think you are being a bit pessimistic about Rafa's future chances but that's not out of character.  Although I'd agree that he (and Novak) are now into the decline period of their careers.

Thanks CJ Super, that's a nice coincidence, I'll be PMing you if I need anything- right now I'm just registering to the e-service.

Thanks IC Also if you're going to call be Red, soon you're going to have to call be 1989 soon. (not my birthdate... but that would follow from Red)

Thanks Socal I'll be on v2 as long as you're posting here.

HM, thanks I was trying to introduce myself to people who may have joined the forum recently, without coming across as too strong. I mean they may think I'm a crazed Nadal-worshipping loony, and the last thing I want is for them to find out the truth too.
Yes, you're right it must be strange to have people watching you train, but Nadal and the top stars must be used to it.
Also I agree with you Nadal is into the decline period of his career.

Aww, no love for me good to hear you'll be posting more though, I hope you and socal stick around.

Argh, sorry !

Silver, I somehow missed your post

I think its because CJ quoted my whole article, which was quite long, and your post was just above that quote (still entirely my fault)

Hey IMBL, thanks for sharing the story and fantastic that you got to meet Rafa. You must've been made up - and nice grades to make medicine at Imperial, very prestigious! I'm sure you'll do well there, congratulations  

Prepare to work hard, enjoy the nightlife, hate the laundrette and appreciate home cooking more than ever  and have a great time too, of course.

Thanks
Imperial was tough, tbh I didn't think I'd get in, a lot of it is down to luck, on another day I could have been nervous and mucked up my BMAT or interview :/

I'm not sure about appreciating home cooking, I have a feeling my skills as a chef is not really up to scratch hah

It Must Be Love wrote:I mean they may think I'm a crazed Nadal-worshipping loony, and the last thing I want is for them to find out the truth too.  

Kneel_before_Nadal made it past you on that count. . BTW, what is the truth? Are you a crazed Nadal-worshipping loony ...?

I was being facetious

Well done mate... A little suprised to see you're probably younger than me... but Congrats getting into medicine... I planned on Starting my MD this year, but alas, chose to stay at my job and Finish my PT Bachelors Commerce degree. Enjoy.

I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

Henman Bill wrote:I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

I want one of his creme wimbeldon leisure suits, if I chased him down it would be to be the man for one of those. Only rappers and Federer could pull it off.

socal1976 wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

I want one of his creme wimbeldon leisure suits, if I chased him down it would be to be the man for one of those. Only rappers and Federer could pull it off.

I won't lie... this made me laugh a lot

kingraf wrote:Well done mate... A little suprised to see you're probably younger than me... but Congrats getting into medicine... I planned on Starting my MD this year, but alas, chose to stay at my job and Finish my PT Bachelors Commerce degree.  Enjoy.

Thanks

Good luck with your degree

socal1976 wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

I want one of his creme wimbeldon leisure suits, if I chased him down it would be to be the man for one of those. Only rappers and Federer could pull it off.

Alas, Federer's great style is unmatched.

Silver; check Wed 10th, 7:27pm, if you've missed it

It Must Be Love wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

I want one of his creme wimbeldon leisure suits, if I chased him down it would be to be the man for one of those. Only rappers and Federer could pull it off.

Alas, Federer's great style is unmatched.

He does have the best threads I think on tour. I certainly don't begrudge him that. Honestly, glad your back IMBL, I haven't been around much lately but now there is a good reason to participate with your return.

socal1976 wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

Henman Bill wrote:I assume in the interests of fairness you will soon be visiting Swizerland and chasing down Roger Federer with similar tenacity.

I want one of his creme wimbeldon leisure suits, if I chased him down it would be to be the man for one of those. Only rappers and Federer could pull it off.

Alas, Federer's great style is unmatched.

He does have the best threads I think on tour. I certainly don't begrudge him that. Honestly, glad your back IMBL, I haven't been around much lately but now there is a good reason to participate with your return.

Must admit, I particularly like the midnight black he wears during USO night sessions. So we'll tailored, such a nice brand of, well, black.

Yes the black USO night outfits are usually very cool looking and simple.

socal1976 wrote:
Honestly, glad your back IMBL, I haven't been around much lately but now there is a good reason to participate with your return.

Thanks

Must admit, I particularly like the midnight black he wears during USO night sessions. So we'll tailored, such a nice brand of, well, black.

Yes the black USO night outfits are usually very cool looking and simple.

Agree with both of you; the Federer all-black US Open night kit is my favourite non-Nadal gear.