Posted: 22.03.09 15:06. Post subject: Пресса знает всё! :)

 Posted: 04.05.09 21:49. Post subject: Надаль – "мастер..

quote:

Надаль – "мастер 15-го разряда"

Оригинальное название и очень хорошая статья Андрея Скачковского Спасибо!

quote:

И сегодня только улыбку вызывают слова Рафы, сказанные им по прибытии в Рим: "В прошлом году я не был разочарован тем, что не выиграл. Нормально – не когда ты выигрываешь, а нормально проигрывать. Необычно – это когда ты выигрываешь в Монте-Карло пять раз подряд или пять раз кряду в Барселоне. Это для меня больше, чем мечта. Это просто невероятно, и я не ожидал ничего подобного. Да, гораздо нормальнее вылететь в первом круге турнира в Риме, чем выиграть его несколько раз подряд"

Но ведь это гораздо нормальнее, no?

 Posted: 04.05.09 21:57. Post subject: AstraM Спасибо за п..

AstraM
Спасибо за перевод! Мастерски сделано! (раз уж речь о мастерах пошла )

quote:

Однако в этом и состоит особенность Надаля: в процессе его, казалось бы, строго упорядоченной – «одномерной» - игры он редко когда не выдает чего-нибудь неожиданного – такого, чего вы, по сути, никогда не видели даже если уже сотни раз наблюдали за его поединками.

Очень верно подмечено. Редкий матч Рафы обходится без чего-то "на десерт" И про "одномерную" игру Тиньор тут неспроста припомнил, автора термина слегка лягнул

И, кстати, Тиньор хоть и напутал с полуфиналистами, с финалом угадал:

quote:

Nadal d. Djokovic

 Posted: 04.05.09 21:58. Post subject: AstraM Присоединяю..

AstraM
Присоединяюсь с благодарностью к другим соучастникам этой ветки форума, вы хорошо делаете переводы, очень легко читается.
Спасибо.

 Posted: 04.05.09 23:06. Post subject: AstraM Спасибо за п..

AstraM
Спасибо за прекрасеые переводы

 Posted: 04.05.09 23:24. Post subject: AstraM Присоединяю..

AstraM

Присоединяюсь ко всем "спасибо"
Переводы действительно замечательные и у Вас, и Ольги. Кажется, будто "адаптация" текста дается вам обеим очень легко, по-хорошему завидую, т.к. сама всегда мучаюсь именно с гладким построением переведенного текста.


Материал о Рафе с vb.com, привлек попыткой "художественного изложения"; так сказать, смесь широко и не очень известных фактов и эмоционального восприятия автора :

Rafael Nadal: a baby face with a killer instinct

By Sebastián Fest
May 4, 2009
Blick.ch
(translation from Spanish to German: Martin Arn)

Nadal, the phenomenon: on the tennis court, the power house from Mallorca works like a typhoon, wiping away everything and everybody. Off court, he’s shy, even a bit afraid.

Acapulco, February 27, 2005

“Zamora! – Zamorita!”. It’s two o’clock in the morning. Young men of the mexican upper class embarrass themselves, they do whatever they can, they sweat and fight for a place into the club. The doorman, Zamora, with the bronzed face, looks at the queues and he enjoys to let the blond boys suffer. “Zamorita”, as they lovingly call him, decides with his thumbs who can enter the packed disco in Acapulco.

Suddenly, a smile appears on his face that was still stern a moment ago. A group of perhaps ten people, just as neatly dressed as the Mexicans, crosses the rope and heads for the entrance. Among them, a powerful boy with a babyface and a blue-white striped shirt that is too big for him: it’s Rafael Nadal and he wants to celebrate his second title in two weeks there. Nobody but the doorman Zamorita takes notice of the 19-year old Spaniard.

Shanghai, November 2005

Between the episode with Zamorita and Shi-Ting, who stands and smiles gracefully, are nine won tournaments. Shi-Ting is one of the girls who points the way to the press rooms – all looking like suites in a fancy hotel - in the catacombs of the Qi-Zhong Tennis centre.
Rafael Nadal has to enter every suite on this cool afternoon. In contrast to Acapulco, where nobody in the disco recognized him, there’s nobody in Shanghai who doesn’t know who Nadal is. Especially not on a day like this one: his foot is injured and he won’t be participating in the tournament. In the morning, Andre Agassi had already withdrawn. While Agassi quietly and secretively disappears, Nadal throws himself in a media marathon. He talks to the fans, explains why he can’t play. For the Chinese, this is crucial. Agassi lost many friends in China, that day.

Nadal - who started the year 2005 at place 50 in the world ranking to end it at number two, winning eleven tournaments and who probably will never again put on that oversized bleu-white shirt - has won in Shanghai without even playing.

Miami, March 2006

Nadal’s fluorescent yellow shirt nearly blinds you under the blazing sun in Miami. It sticks to his body and shows off his imposing biceps. But is that really Nadal?

Something isn’t right. Nadal is behind in the score. Carlos Moya, his Spanish compatriot, friend and example, uses his forehand to hit Nadal with balls. Nadal looks empty. Against this opponent whom he admires so much and who has helped him so much in the past, he loses and now, he has to explain the reason.

In the press room, with a lowered head and slightly shivering because the room has been heavily cooled down, he says: “For me, it was a match like all others. Nothing special. Carlos is my best friend on tour”. Nadal doesn’t speak about the foot injury that’s turned up two weeks before in Indian Wells even though, it was very clear on court that he wasn’t in the best shape. He prefers to talk about upcoming events. “Now, I have to focus on the clay court season and prepare for the Monte Carlo tournament”, he says. “and with all my six senses”. Next to him sits Benito Perez Barbadillo, the ATP media representative, who almost falls from his chair. “What did you say? You will prepare with all your six senses?” – “Ah”, replies Nadal, “are there only five? Okay, I will train six because I will need them this year”.

Miami, a day later

Nadal is beside himself. After a cheerful, moist night lasting almost until 6 a.m., there’s a bit of a chaos in the hotel room. Even though he’s used to that, this morning, he can’t find his way between the racquets, shirts, socks. In less than two hours, the flight to Madrid takes off.

Downstairs, in the lobby, his press representative is getting nervous. An interview with the North-American “Tennis Magazine” was supposed to take place an hour ago and a german journalist wants to contract Nadal as a columnist for the football world championship 2006.

During the tournament, the german newspaper readers learn a totally different side: the football expert Nadal. You don’t have to look far for an explanation. His uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, used to be a defender for Barcelona and the national team of Spain. And of course, Rafa also knows his way with the big ball. However, he needs to dig up his passport right now. Rafa looks around as if he’s about to serve to fight against losing a match. Pinched eyes, tight lips. Finally! There’s the damn document. The tension eases. Up comes a different Nadal. The nervous, anxious, shy Nadal who keeps his eyes locked on the ground during interviews.

When seeing him like that, you understand why Nadal has turned down the offer from “People” – magazine. The American lifestyle magazine wanted to photograph him for their list of the world’s 50 most attractive men. He felt too young for that, he confided to a friend. He’s not yet a man. He wants to play tennis. It has to be said that Nadal has a refined sense for how he has to present himself in public.

Maybe this is linked to his incredible will to win. People who know him say that Rafa doesn’t even like to lose playing cards. Nadal is always ready as the world number one to behave perfectly off court. He has reached that sports goal on August 19, 2009. He’s still working on his appearances off court. But, he also wants to improve that.

After four victories in Roland Garros and one title in Wimbledon and eventually, after his victory this year in Melbourne, he’s the one who has done the unthinkable: to dethrone Roger Federer. Nadal brought Federer to tears and he has made him so unsure that the Swiss even destroyed his racquet recently .

As defiant and gladiatorial as he appears on court when he celebrates his own points with big gestures, there’s nobody who has seen him destroy a racquet. Neither has anybody heard him say something unflattering. This is due to his childhood in Manacor, an inconspicuous place in the middle of Mallorca, a town that looks more like a Prussian village than as a Spanish town where children grow up with discipline, strict, with a keen sense of what’s right. They learn to say thank you. Nadal thanks all sorts of people all day long, even the ball kids. Other than his upbringing, something else plays a role: Spain is practically dominated by football. Only two Spanish sportspeople have been able to hold the attention of the public together with the football players: Nadal and F1 ace Fernando Alfonso. Nadal has realized early on that it’s to his advantage to be friendly, polite and to say thanks. The race driver who is now a bit shunned is proving the opposite. .

Barcelona, April 2006

In the club house of the royal tennis club in Barcelona, the air is boiling. This is the most important event of the year for the catalan elite. The clay court tournament has tradition. The prize money now goes up to one million dollars. In the lounge, in between the buns covered with tomatoes and garlic, you can overhear the small talk about tennis and football.

A few years ago, Rafa introduced himself very politely to a young lady who wanted to get autographs of all the athletes after the matches: “Hi, I’m Rafael Nadal”, he said shyly, mumbling his name. He no longer needs to do that in 2006. Everybody knows him. However, Nadal seems tired this afternoon.

He’s suffering. In the quarter final, he’s facing Jarkko Nieminen. The Fin has faster legs and more powerful strokes. Nieminen leads 6-4, 4-1 and is well on his way to spoil the afternoon of the onlookers. “I will get this game”, Nadal encourages himself with mallorcan accent over and over again. Five days earlier, he had beaten Federer in Monte Carlo. Now, he’s facing defeat against an anonymous player. Somehow, Nadal wins the second set but soon, he’s 1-3 behind in the third set. Nadal fights back like a man possessed. “I will get this game”, he groans after a lost point. “I will get this game” he roars after a cross-court shot that jumps away, nearly parallel with the border of the net, a shot only he can pull off. He does get the game as well as the match.

After the match, there’s no longer a trace of the doggedness. Nadal, shy as ever, sits in front of the press. The journalists ask him if he wants to beat Björn Borg’s record. Borg has won 46 times in a row on clay. Guillermo Vilas, the Argentine, has won 8 more. Nadal doesn’t really give an answer. He prefers to amuse himself with his bad English. He apologizes for not having mastered Shakespeare’s grammar. But, when Nadal speaks in Spanish, his obsession becomes clear. He could talk for hours on end about figures, points and the ATP ranking.

In his head, he keeps a record of each result, from each rival in the fight for the number one. Without looking at a paper, he can mention every match he played on clay between 2005 and 2008. In the evening, after having won a match, he will critically analyze his opponent from the next round, so much so that his uncle Toni Nadal needs to remind him that he needs to go to bed soon.

Figures, points, ranking. Those are Nadal’s passion. “With the points I have won in 2005, I would have been the number one in another year”, he once said. “My problem is that I have Federer in front of me. The best of all time.”

Hamburg, May 2007

“The good thing is that I finally know how to play against Rafa on clay”, laughs Roger Federer during this weekend in Hamburg. His laughter betrays that he really believes what he just said. Federer has wiped away Nadal in the final with 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 and he looks to be on the fast track to his first Roland Garros title.

However, on this afternoon, Nadal is exhausted. Nadal is empty. In Paris, he will be at the peak of his ability again. Hamburg, May 2007, was Federer’s last victory over Nadal on clay. The Swiss loses seven of the eight following matches against the upstart from Mallorca. By that time, Nadal has long left the Vilas Record behind him. However, Nadal wants to become the number one. He wants to triumph in Wimbledon. He wants to win everything.

London, July 2008

The sun has disappeared behind the stadium a long time ago. There’s a shadow on Federer’s face. The dream about six consecutive Wimbledon titles is over.

Nadal has conquered King Roger, in a match that is considered to be the best of all time by John Mcenroe. The Spaniard wins everything that summer, Olympic gold as well. He’s the number one. Of course, there are also defaults in his game but Nadal simply takes notice of him. He’s so obsessed by winning but he can’t do anything else but to win.

Melbourne, January 2009

“Of course, the record of Sampres will be beaten” says Mats Wilander after the Australian Open final. Again, Nadal came out as the winner from a remarkable match against Roger Federer. “Nadal will break the record of Sampras”.

Despite the laughter in the room, a couple of people are wondering if Wilander could be right. In any case, the ballbasher from Mallorca has turned into a real champion in no time at all. One who pursues his goals with determination like we’ve only seen from Federer so far.

He has also matured in his appearance. The pants are shorter, the shirts have sleeves. The baby face has become a man, the world number one.

But, in fact, who is he, this Rafael Nadal? This question does not have an easy answer. It’s even hard to do when you follow Nadal’s every move for years. It starts with his game. The 22-year old Mallorcan is actually a right-hander but he holds his racquet with his left hand. That way, his backhand can have more power behind it.

Next, there’s the extroverted athlete, who is a steady familyman off court who always returns to Manacor. He shields his private life. The spotlights only please him on a tennis court. For a long time, nobody in Spain even knew that he had a girlfriend. Even today, her name is not familiar. Maria Francisca Xisca Perello is the name of the girl he has known since his school time. What he likes about her? That she’s never shown interested in Rafa, the superstar, he says about his childhood love.

The more famous I became, says Rafa, the harder she withdrew. In the end, he managed to win her over. He simply can not lose, this Rafael Nadal.

 Posted: 05.05.09 08:12. Post subject: AstraM Огромное сп..

AstraM

Огромное спасибо за такие великолепные переводы

 Posted: 05.05.09 08:17. Post subject: The Rafa Rules Stev..

The Rafa Rules

Steve Tignor

If Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic isn’t the game’s greatest rivalry, or even a rivalry at all by the standard definition of the word—Nadal currently leads their head-to-head 13-4—this spring it has certainly become the tour’s most absorbing adversarial relationship. The length, breadth, diversity, quality, and even the sound of their rallies; the companionable but full-blooded way they square off against each other; the sight of Nadal’s tolerant smile as Djokovic imitated his most famous and embarrassing on-court mannerism during the trophy ceremony in Rome: These guys were made to play each other. While they haven’t scaled the heights together the way Nadal and Federer have, the Spaniard and the Serb produce more consistently spectacular points. The lack of win-or-die tension in most of their matches to this point—they’ve yet to play a major final—keep both of them loose and swinging from the heels. No one plays more watchable tennis.

Beyond the rallies themselves, what struck me on Sunday was how these two also have come to define a new code of sportsmanship among the men. When Nadal arrived on tour, his previously unseen repertoire of flying fist-pumps rubbed some players and fans the wrong way. They inspired Andy Roddick to play the most bloodthirsty match of his career and demolish him in a night match at the U.S. Open in 2004. Longtime fans schooled in the game’s classic Aussie virtues thought the kid was a cheesy showboat who tried to agitate his opponents by celebrating their errors. After getting to know Nadal a little better, most of us have come to realize that his exhortations are just that: self-directed, self-generated energy boosts, reminders to himself to keep his desire to win, rather than his anxiety about losing, uppermost in his mind.

It’s worked, and it’s spawned two very prominent young imitators in Djokovic and Andy Murray. While those guys allow their frustration to surface more often than Nadal, they’ve also come to see the value of creating a rousing moment of positive emotion after a winning point, rather than just putting their heads down and silently preparing for the next point. In their best matches, Nadal and Djokovic trade full-throated roars, chest slaps, and leaping first-pumps, and neither takes offense. You might prefer the old WASP code of reserved, gentlemanly humility—“act like you’ve been there before”—or you might prefer the pensively concentrated way that Sampras and Federer make their way through a match. I like to see the emotion, personally. What I like even more is the way that, unlike the days of McEnroe and Connors, that emotion is now channeled inside the sport’s traditional definitions of sportsmanship. There’s nothing ugly or antagonistic about what Nadal or Djokovic do. When they aren’t slapping themselves in the chest, they’re apologizing to each other for net cords, mishits, and pretty much anything else out of the ordinary that happens. Yesterday, Djokovic put his hand up to Nadal to say he was sorry for grunting too long after he hit a backhand. This kind of back and forth, both the fiery and the polite, is a timely and refreshing update in the way tennis is conducted. You no longer have to be an Australian from the 1950s to know how to play the game properly.

As far as yesterday’s match, I didn’t see anything to make me think Djokovic is any closer to solving the eternal riddle of Nadal on clay. He did break the Spaniard twice when he was serving for the first set, but when it was really up for grabs, in the tiebreaker, it was Djokovic who broke down. Nadal, at the most basic level, forces Djokovic to hit his favorite shots, the down-the-line forehand and backhand, from a little wider, a little deeper, and a little out of his strike zone. Djokovic is right to keep going for these shots. The alternative is to keep rallying crosscourt with Nadal, a suicide mission if there ever was one. And the Serb can hit those high-risk shots for winners. He just hasn’t shown that he can hit them for winners for two full sets. Let alone three.

You’ve heard me mention the last few weeks that it’s been a struggle to find new ways to talk about Nadal. So let me reach back and repackage a few old observations of mine about what he does well, most of which haven’t appeared here. We spend a lot of time talking about the guy's grit and desire and cussedness and even his appearance—I’ve brought his eyebrows into the discussion and Pete Bodo spent a post talking about his sleeves. Pete lamented that Rafa’s new look had changed him from an intimidating muscle car to a safe and conventional Volvo. To which I can only say that every Saturday as a kid I used to see a doctor who lived up the hill from us burn down our street at twice the speed limit in his sharp-featured, dark-green, Modish, mid-60s Volvo sedan. I've never thought that cars came any cooler than that.

Anyway, the point is that we don’t read a lot of specifics about what the No. 1 player in the world does tactically and technically to separate himself from the pack. So for those of you like me who are dusting off their racquets and checking to see if the nets are up yet, here are six lessons from the best to start the playing season.

1. Serve

Early in his career, Nadal’s serve was a liability. He used a stiff, abbreviated motion that produced little pace or bite. He’s tinkered with his delivery in the years since and upped its velocity. More important, his limited ability to produce 130-m.p.h. bombs has forced him to develop two other serving strengths: accuracy and the element of surprise. We know that Nadal takes his time setting up to serve. Part of this may stem from the fact that he can’t step to the line and count on an ace. He relies on placement and variety, which need to be thought out.

The result is that Nadal hits to more targets with regularity than his opponents. Where most players either go wide, into the body, or down the T, Nadal aims for more specific spots. He may go down the T three straight times, but rather than mixing it up by going wide on the next one, he’ll mix it up by aiming 2 feet inside the T, at his opponent’s hip, and with a little extra pace. The same goes when he serves wide in the ad court. Nadal’s accuracy makes it difficult for his opponents to guess where the ball is going.

In last year’s French Open final, Nadal served virtually every ball to Federer’s backhand. In the Wimbledon final, he changed spots much more often. Nadal doesn’t use variety for its own sake; he’s happy spinning the ball into his opponent’s backhand every time, if that’s what’s working. One advantage to this tactic is that late in a match it allows him to ambush his opponent on a crucial point in the ad court by firing a flat ball down the T.

Unfortunately, I can only point out the tactic. You have to learn to hit those targets yourself.

Lessons: (1) Even without natural power on your serve, you can be just as effective by concentrating on accuracy and hitting very specific targets. (2) Don't be afraid to be predictable with it; make your opponent prove he can handle a certain serve before you decide to mix it up. Variety is never an end in itself.

2. Return

As with the serve, Nadal’s return doesn’t appear to be one of his strengths at first glance. He’s often forced to take his second hand off his backhand and slice back a high floater, which immediately puts him on the defensive. But again, Nadal makes up for that weakness with his return tactics

Nowhere was this more apparent than in his second-round match at Wimbledon in 2008 against Ernests Gulbis. Nadal lost the first set 7-5 in large part because of Gulbis’ ability to consistently fire first serves in the 120-–130-m.p.h. range. At the start of the second set, Nadal took a couple of big steps backward, giving himself an extra millisecond to react on his return. He won the next three sets. Afterward, Gulbis said he had been thrown off by a change in Nadal’s tactics, but couldn’t figure out what the Spaniard was doing differently.

And unlike, say, James Blake, you’ll almost never see Nadal go for an outright winner on his return. He knows that, with few players following their serves to the net, he can be just as offensive, and much safer, hitting a high topspin forehand into his opponent’s backhand side and working his way into the point from there.

Lessons: (1) Always evaluate your return position—if nothing else, this will keep your mind working, and not worrying—and don’t be afraid to change it mid-match. (2) Never try for an outright winner on your return. Start by getting the ball back in play to your opponent's weaker side. The goal should be to neutralize the serve and work to create a higher-percentage shot before you pull the trigger.

3. Volley

Nadal is no net-rusher in singles, which may come as a surprise to anyone who has seen him play doubles. There he puts his aggressive instincts on display, relishing the close-range volley battles that doubles produces.

But those instincts still serve him well in singles. Nadal typically comes to the net after hitting a strong approach and getting his opponent on the run. This allows him to take most of his volleys from an offensive position and above net level. The key for him is to put the ball away immediately and not let his opponent get a crack at a pass. Nadal takes care of this in two ways. First, he keeps his volley stroke extraordinarily simple; rather than a “punch,” which is what a player is taught to think when he hits a volley, Nadal, particularly on his forehand side, pares it down even more. He essentially taps the ball into the open court.

Nadal brings his racquet all the way up, until it’s almost perpendicular with the surface, so he can hit down on the ball. He knows he’s not a power volleyer and that if he’s at the net, his opponent is typically out of position, so he concentrates on using sharp, short angles that keep the ball out of the others guy’s reach.

Lessons: (1) Think control, rather than pace, on your volleys. (2) Keep your take-back as short as possible. (3) Use sharp angles whenever you can to keep your opponent from getting a second or third look at a pass.

4. Backhand

One reason Nadal won Wimbledon last year was his improved backhand. He flattened it out and used it as a weapon. For the most part, though, it remains a rally shot, one that helps him set up his vaunted forehand. Still, as time has gone on, Nadal, with his usual tinkering, has found ways to throw off his opponents by changing spin, speed, and depth with his backhand.

“It’s tough,” Sam Querrey said after losing to Nadal at the U.S. Open last fall, “because he gives you that [backhand] chip and he almost tempts you to come in. . . . He’s kind of just edging you on a little bit. It’s tough to deal with.” Querrey was referring to how Nadal takes the air out of a hard-hit ball by gently slicing it back in the vicinity of the service line. It forces his opponent to deal with a new spin and hit up on the ball, as well as making him hesitate before deciding whether to come in or not. Nadal knows he’s good enough to track down nearly any approach, and if it isn’t perfect, to send back a passing shot.

Lessons: (1) Be willing to mix up not only the direction of your ground strokes—i.e., crosscourt or down the line—but also their depth. (2) A low, short slice may not be an aggressive play, but it’s an uncomfortable shot for your opponent to deal with.

5. Drop Shot

For a bruiser, Nadal has a first-class touch game. He has great hands at net and on drop shots, but it’s the way he uses his touch game that makes it so consistent and effective.

Nadal has two types of drop shots. The first is a change of pace that comes in the middle of a rally. He’ll slice severely under his backhand and land the ball short, but not because he thinks he can win the point outright with it. Instead, he gives it plenty of clearance over the net and follows it forward. His opponent is forced to hit up on the ball and Nadal is there to intercept it with a volley into the open court.

Nadal uses a different type of drop shot when he has the advantage in a rally and is hitting from well inside the baseline. On those occasions, he’ll often get in position for a forehand, come under it at the last second, and drop it without too much spin into the center of the service box for a winner.

As with his serve, return, and volley, the key to Nadal’s drop shot is its safety. Yes, he has great touch, but the other reason he rarely misses this shot is that, first and foremost, he makes sure the ball clears the net. Unlike Andy Murray, who in the past has gone to the drop-shot well too often, Nadal tries to win a point with his drop only when he can do it without having to make the shot a spectacular one.

Lessons: (1) The first step to hitting an effective drop shot is clearing the net. (2) If you have your opponent scrambling, follow your drop shot all the way in so you can cut off his floating reply. (3) Only try to win a point outright with a drop shot when you don’t have to be spectacular with it.

6. Mind Game

We’ve heard and read a lot about Nadal’s mental strengths. But last week at work TENNIS Magazine’s editor, James Martin, and I watched him celebrate after winning an early round match in Rome—he looked like he couldn’t possibly have been any happier. We agreed that we’d never seen any player show so much so joy in winning with such regularity. This outlook must contribute to Nadal's ability to keep winning match after match and tournament after tournament on clay. He never lets winning feel routine, like a job. He rewards himself with a little reveling, no matter who he’s beaten or what round it is.

Whether Nadal thinks of it this way or not, his post-match revelry is another reminder to himself of why he’s out there. As I said before here, his fist-pumps and vamoses are a way of keeping his desire to win tangible—something he can always feel—and aspirational, rather than a given. Note that he doesn't just do this after breaking serve or drilling an impossible winner. At one point against Djokovic, Nadal was down 15-30 on his serve, and a tiny momentum shift toward his opponent seemed possible. Nadal won the next point with a service winner. When Djokovic's return landed wide, the Spaniard let out a short, scratchy, but easily audible vamos, while adding a truncated but determined fist-pump. Nadal hadn't just won a point, he'd made that point seem important to everyone in the arena, including himself and his opponent. He eventually held.

Nadal approaches each match as if winning it is a new goal line to cross, rather than something to be afraid of losing. In this sense, he’s like Michael Jordan, who set out to prove himself again every day. But Nadal's ambition isn’t as hard-edged as Jordan’s. Rafa doesn’t want to embarrass his opponent (unless, perhaps, his name is Soderling); he wants more than anything to feel that addictive sense of joy and relief that we all feel every time we win a tennis match. Allowing himself to soak that feeling in for a second gives him one more reason to try his absolute best to make it happen. I said earlier that the old-school way to win has always been to act like you’ve been there before. Nadal has successfully turned that on its head. He wins by acting like he’s never been there before.

http://tennisworld.typepad.com/thewrap/2009/05/the-rafa-rules.html

 Posted: 05.05.09 20:29. Post subject: Натали пишет: Astra..

Натали пишет:

quote:

AstraM Огромное тебе спасибо за очередной прекрасный перевод!

Присоединяюсь к благодарностям! Замечательный перевод , впрочем, как всегда!

 Posted: 06.05.09 11:18. Post subject: Federer Fails to Det..

Federer Fails to Deter Nadal in Fight to Be Richest Tennis Star

By Danielle Rossingh and Alex Duff

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- While Rafael Nadal claimed four French Open titles and a Wimbledon championship on his way to becoming the No. 1 player in tennis by age 22, he’s never quite been in the driver’s seat of his own career when it comes to money.

Consider the saga of Nadal’s $50,000 Mercedes SLK 200 Kompressor. In 2005, his breakout year as a pro, Nadal won the Mercedes Cup final in Stuttgart, Germany, with a characteristic backhand smash that his opponent couldn’t handle. In a sweat- soaked shirt, he climbed into the silver convertible sports car parked on the red-clay court -- part of his prize for winning the event -- and inched it forward a few yards.

Toni Nadal, Rafael’s coach and uncle, who was watching from the stands, told his nephew soon after the event to forget about driving the car any farther. Toni arranged for Kia Motors Corp., a Nadal sponsor, to provide him with a $20,000 Sorento sport utility vehicle, which he drove while the Mercedes gathered dust in the family’s garage for two years.

“I said I wouldn’t like him to have a luxury car,” Toni says. “I never wanted him to be incorrect or have a showoff attitude.”

Under Toni’s tutelage, Nadal ended Roger Federer’s 4 1/2 year reign as the world’s best tennis player in 2008 and is favored to win his fifth French Open, a Grand Slam event starting on May 24. In the sporting world’s most riveting head- to-head rivalry, Nadal still lags behind Federer in at least one notable category -- earning power.

Money Leader

Federer tops the money list in tennis, with an annual income from tournaments and endorsements of $35.1 million, placing him 11th on Sports Illustrated’s 2008 ranking of the top 50 earners in sports. Tiger Woods, at $127.9 million, is by far the richest athlete, followed by golf rival Phil Mickelson and Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

Nadal, who didn’t make the cut, probably earned about $15 million to $20 million in 2008, says Simon Chadwick, a professor of sport business strategy and marketing at the U.K.’s Coventry University Business School.

This year, Nadal may be gaining ground on Federer as a moneymaker too. After winning his first Wimbledon title and the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Nadal signed deals with three corporate sponsors including Mapfre SA, Spain’s largest insurer, bringing his endorsement total to nine.

Old-Fashioned Nadal

While marketers mostly use Nadal for promotions in Spain, Nike Inc. is repackaging him for a broader international audience. In January, the world’s largest athletic shoe maker outfitted him in more conventional attire, ditching his sleeveless muscle top and three-quarter-length pants for a polo shirt and shorts.

“Nadal is on the way to becoming a global brand,” says Steve Simon, tournament director of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, an event that the Spaniard won in March. “Beckham has been there for years. Federer has been there for years. Nadal, if he can stay healthy and continue to play like he is today, is going to be there as well.”

The product of a close-knit Spanish family that prizes discipline and modesty over fame, Nadal is taking an almost quaint route to the accumulation of wealth. While sports is full of stars like Russia’s Anna Kournikova, who once made more money from sponsors than any other female athlete without ever claiming a singles tennis title, Nadal refuses to let endorsements distract him from improving his game.

“Maybe he is just an old-fashioned type of sports person, somebody who sees the sport as the single-most-important thing,” Chadwick says.

Nadal’s Brand

At a press conference at Indian Wells, Nadal said that too many endorsements meant too many days of work in an already hectic 11-month season. In February, after a 24-hour journey from the Australian Open to the island of Majorca, Nadal spent 10 hours filming his seventh ad in a year for Banco Espanol de Credito SA, a unit of Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest lender.

“I am a tennis player,” Nadal said at Indian Wells. “For me, it’s very, very important, the sponsors, sure. But at the same time, I want to have time, enough time to practice and to continue to improve my tennis.”

With Nadal, marketers get an unusual mix of humility and virility, or what Tom Cannon, a professor and sports finance expert at the University of Liverpool Management School in England, calls a “safe rebel.” On the court, with bulging biceps and a bandana over his wavy dark-brown hair, Nadal is a warrior with a wicked forehand -- an image used by Kia in television commercials. Off the court, Nadal, who still lives with his parents in their apartment in the small town of Manacor on Majorca, is humble and reserved. He shows it every time he calls No. 2 Federer the world’s best.

Fashionable Federer

Federer, the sport’s leading brand, flaunts his fame, attending New York Fashion Week with Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour in 2006. Gillette Co., the leading razor blade maker, used Federer, 27, Woods, 33, and French soccer star Thierry Henry in 2007 in its largest sports advertising campaign that year, which reached 150 markets worldwide.

Federer, a native of Switzerland who speaks Swiss German, German, English and French, appeals to sponsors such as Rolex Group with his sophisticated self-assurance, Chadwick says.

“Federer has a set of values that makes him very appealing to sponsors; he is very approachable,” he says. “Nadal has a more mysterious quality. He needs to be less mysterious, more outgoing.”

Matching Laver

Nadal is now making a run at winning all four Grand Slam events in one calendar year -- a feat last accomplished in the men’s game by Australia’s Rod Laver in 1969. Since then, advances in racket technology and a longer season have added to the physical toll on a player’s body, making it tougher to repeat Laver’s masterpiece.

With his overpowering topspin shots and boundless energy, Nadal reduced Federer to tears by beating him at the Australian Open final in February, the first Grand Slam event of the year. After the French Open, Nadal will have to take Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- an event he’s never won -- to achieve what’s eluded almost every top player.

“What Nadal is doing in this moment is just incredible,” former Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia said at Indian Wells. “You have to give him credit for that. Not everybody is as physically ready as he is.”

Just like Nadal’s tennis, his income -- including more than $24 million in prize money won since 2001 -- is a family affair. Nadal lets his father, Sebastian, manage his money with the help of a financial adviser.

Brothers in Business

“Rafael doesn’t have any experience in business; it’s normal that his father takes care of things,” says Toni, Sebastian’s brother.

Rafael comes from a family of small-business owners. Sebastian, 50, and Toni, 49, started a window-making company, Vidres Mallorca SL, with five employees in Manacor in the mid- 1980s. With their third brother, Miguel Angel, 42, a former soccer pro, they bought the Sa Punta restaurant, which has a 300-square-meter (3,200-square-foot) terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in the Son Servera area of Majorca.

The trio also opened a cafe, an English-language school and the Grup d’Assegurances insurance company on Manacor’s town square. The three brothers all own homes on the same oceanfront street in the resort of Porto Cristo.

“When we buy something, we buy together,” Toni says. “Rafael has some investments with us as well, but he has many more things on his own.”

Nadal’s Investments

Rafael owns four companies that aim to invest in real estate, hotels, bars and restaurants and other businesses. He has a stake in a hotel in Mexico, a warehouse in Majorca and real estate in Spain. One company, Debamina SL, had equity of 3.1 million euros ($4 million) and a loss of 6,780 euros as of the end of 2007, according to its public filings. Rafael also put a little bit of money in the stock market.

“They are ordinary investments, the kind of stakes in companies that many people have,” says Sebastian, who declined to provide details.

The companies are in San Sebastian, a tourist destination in northern Spain known for its two three-Michelin-star restaurants. The city of 180,000 is part of the semiautonomous Basque region, where the group Basque Homeland and Freedom, known by the acronym ETA, has carried out deadly bombings and shootings to win full independence as recently as December. Sebastian says he picked the region because he’s had business partners, some former professional soccer players, in the area for more than a decade.

Indian Wells

The financial adviser, whom Sebastian declined to name, has also set up a pension for Nadal, who plays a sport in which players typically retire before the age of 35. In 2006, Nadal placed 6.1 million euros with Goramendi Siglo XXI SL, another company he owns. He’ll get the exact sum back in annual payments of 180,000 euros every Jan. 1 from the ages of 30 to 63, a company filing shows.

“For now, it gives him security,” Toni says. “There will be time to spend in the future.”

For top tennis pros, prize money from tournaments amounts to a small fraction of their take from sponsors. At Indian Wells, Nadal demonstrates the unrestrained style on the court that lures endorsements and fans to him.

Before the tournament, he enters an almost empty main stadium to practice. At the baseline, he pulls off his tennis shorts, allowing observers a peek at him in his tight, white briefs. Two women in the press box scramble for their mobile phones to snap photos. After changing into three-quarter-length pants that he sometimes wears for practice, Nadal begins his warm-up.

Youth Appeal

Unlike Federer, who practices at half speed before matches, Nadal is going full throttle within 10 minutes. He sweats profusely, groans at every stroke and occasionally shouts at himself after making a mistake. The sounds of his shots reverberate throughout the stadium.

Nike signed Nadal in 1999, when he was only 13. Federer and two other top 10 pros wear the Nike swoosh as well.

“Rafa connects with today’s youth,” Nike spokeswoman Marloes Jonker says. “We consider Rafa to be a key driver of our brand.”

In 2005, at age 18, the tennis prodigy erupted as a dominating force, becoming the first teenager to win 11 tournaments in one season. Nadal made his mark on slower clay courts, like those of the French Open, where his topspin shots have even more bounce to frustrate opponents.

‘Strongest Player’

At the semifinals of the 2005 French Open, the Spaniard first met Federer, then the world’s best, in a Grand Slam event. It was Nadal’s 19th birthday and he played almost flawlessly, making 30 fewer unforced errors than the Swiss champion in a four-set victory.

“Nadal is physically the strongest player on the tour, and mentally he has this incredible ability to stay focused from the first point to the last,” says Djokovic, one of the top 5 players.

During the 2006 season, Nadal adjusted his style to finish matches more quickly and reduce the wear on his arms and legs. On hard courts and grass, where the ball bounces lower, he stood closer to the baseline and used a greater variety of shots, such as a one-handed backhand slice. In the finals of the Dubai Open in March of that year, Nadal ended Federer’s run of 56 consecutive matches won on hard courts and also beat him during the finals of the French Open for his second Grand Slam victory.

Banesto Deal

As Nadal earned more victories -- completing a record winning streak of 81 consecutive matches on clay in 2007 -- he lured bigger sponsors. In October, he cut a shampoo endorsement deal with Paris-based L’Oreal SA, the world’s leading cosmetic maker, which uses him only in ads in Spain. He also hooked up with Banco Espanol de Credito, or Banesto, that same month.

Rafael’s agent Carlos Costa, a former tennis pro who stays in the Nadal family home when visiting, offered Banesto a sponsorship on a Wednesday. Chairwoman Ana Patricia Botin, the daughter of Emilio Botin, the patriarch of the family that has helped run Santander for 114 years, agreed to the four-year deal the following Monday, says Rami Aboukhair, marketing director of the bank.

“Rafa is perfect for us,” Aboukhair says. “He appeals to 5- year-old kids, mothers, grandmothers. Fathers see him as a very good role model for their children.”

Banesto, whose net income fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter amid a recession in Spain, is using Nadal to boost deposits. One television ad shows Nadal, dressed in a gray sports coat without a tie, alongside business-suited bank employees shouting “Vamos!” -- his on-court battle cry that means “Let’s go!”

Wimbledon Match

The bank offers people 500 euros for directly depositing their paychecks of at least 1,000 euros into a Banesto account for 40 months. Last year, 300,000 customers signed up through a similar promotion fronted by Nadal.

“It was far more successful than we had expected,” Aboukhair says. “Nadal is popular with everyone.”

Last July, Nadal met Federer at Wimbledon in what seven- time Grand Slam singles champion John McEnroe called the greatest match he’d ever seen. Many of the 13,800 Centre Court spectators were on their feet as both men produced winners from seemingly impossible angles. After Nadal, who had never won on the grass at Wimbledon, took the first two sets, 6-4, 6-4, Federer snatched the next two on tiebreakers, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (10-8).

Babolat Sales Rise

Serving for the championship at 8-7 in the fifth set, in near darkness, Nadal stunned Federer when he changed tactics and played his first serve-and-volley point of the match to even the score at 15-15. Nadal won on his fourth match point when Federer dumped a routine forehand into the net. A tearful Nadal fell on his back, his arms stretched out wide, after winning the longest men’s singles final at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, founded in 1868.

“It’s probably my hardest loss, by far,” Federer told reporters after the match.

Nadal’s victory gave a boost to French racket manufacturer Babolat, which has a multimillion-dollar deal with the Spaniard. Sales of the AeroPro Drive racket endorsed by Nadal increased as much as 30 percent for many retailers following the Wimbledon final, says Tim McCool, the Lyon, France-based company’s managing director of U.S. operations.

“His passion shows from the first serve to the last,” McCool says.

‘Sexy Virility’

After Nadal took over the top spot in tennis last year, more sponsors signed up. New York-based Inter Parfums Inc. made Nadal the worldwide ambassador for its men’s fragrance, Lanvin L’Homme Sport. In one ad, Nadal wears a half-unbuttoned white shirt with a black tie hanging loosely around his neck. In a press release, Lanvin hails his “sexy virility.”

Nadal was schooled in hard work in Manacor, a furniture manufacturing town of 38,000 residents which has none of the glamour of Palma, the yacht-filled summer haunt on the southwest coast of Majorca popular with celebrities such as the Hollywood couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Surrounded by fig and almond tree groves, Manacor’s few visitors stay in its one hotel, a two-star inn with a dozen simple rooms.

For the last six years, the town has been run by councilmen from the People’s Party, conservatives with close ties to the Catholic Church. Manacor remains a place where Nadal can walk the streets without being hounded by paparazzi and autograph hunters.

“The character of a Majorcan is not to look for fame,” Toni says. “Rafael has lived in the same place since he was little. He doesn’t want to complicate his life by thinking about whether he is famous or not. He’s family oriented.”

Starting at Age 4

For Nadal, playing tennis was almost preordained. He and his younger sister Maribel grew up in an apartment above a tennis equipment shop and across the street from Manacor Club de Tenis on the edge of town. Toni, a broad-shouldered and soft- spoken man, was the in-house coach at the tennis club. He took the job after failing to break into the ranks of Spain’s top 20 professional players.

Toni began training Nadal at age 4.

“My involvement with him is not only about tennis; he’s my nephew,” says Toni, a father of three young children. “I didn’t have a son at the time; he is almost like a son to me.”

After primary school at the Catholic Colegio San Vicente de Paul, Nadal would dash to the tennis club to work with Toni for about an hour. Nadal often stayed into the night to hit balls and play with friends.

“He’d be here until 9 p.m.,” says Juan Hidalgo, 70, the tennis club manager. “His dad would come over here and yell, ‘You’ve got to go to school tomorrow.’”

Training in Discipline

The Nadals did almost everything as a family. When Rafael was in primary school, Sebastian, Toni and Miguel Angel bought a five-story apartment building on Manacor’s central square. Three generations of the family moved into the historic apartment building with wooden shutters called El Palau, or the Palace, named after the 14th-century residence of Jaume II when Majorca was a kingdom. Rafael and his parents live in one apartment, his grandparents are in another and Toni’s family occupies a third unit.

At practice, Toni kept Rafael disciplined, ordering him to pick up tennis balls and rake the clay surface -- a routine he still follows today after workouts. By age 8, Rafael was winning tournaments against 12-year-olds. While Rafael was still a child, Toni coaxed him to make a fundamental change from a double-handed grip on both sides to a single grip for forehand shots.

“There weren’t any double-handed players in the top 10,” Toni says. “It was logical.” He was surprised to discover that Nadal, who writes with his right hand, had more power with his left. At age 10, Nadal became a lefty in a game dominated by right-handed players.

Soccer Hero

Nadal’s heroes as a kid were soccer, not tennis, stars. His uncle Miguel Angel, a rugged defender with a fierce right-foot shot, played for Barcelona when it won the European Cup in 1992 and was the captain of Spain’s soccer team at the World Cup in the U.S. in 1994. The following year, Manacor named its new municipal sports center after its then best-known athlete, Miguel Angel.

“He is a very calm guy and knows how to keep everything balanced, and makes sure that I do not get carried away with myself,” Nadal told reporters in 2005.

The Spanish tennis federation offered the 14-year-old Nadal a grant to train and study at the elite San Cugat sports academy in Barcelona. Sebastian and Toni turned down the grant because they didn’t want him to be separated from his family at such a young age. Instead, he enrolled closer to home in the smaller Sports Technical Center and the Instituto Son Pacs high school in Palma.

Pro at 16

The coach made the 100-kilometer (62-mile) round trip twice a day on weekdays to bring Nadal to and from Palma. Nadal arrived home in Manacor as late as 10 p.m. after wolfing down a sandwich for dinner in Toni’s car.

Marisa Cerdo, Nadal’s tutor, says he was an average student who always finished his homework even though he missed classes for two weeks at a time to attend tournaments, including one in Australia.

“He would never say where he’d been; he’d never boast about it,” Cerdo says. “His father asked me not to give him special treatment.”

In 2002, at age 15, Nadal won his first professional tour match at the Majorcan Open. Two months later in June, he turned 16 and quit school to become a full-time tennis pro.

Nadal’s Family

“Nadal’s family is investing in the person as much as the sportsman,” says Santiago Alvarez de Mon, a professor at IESE Business School in Barcelona who has written about Nadal. “That explains his mental fortitude. He’s still with the same girlfriend he’s had for ages and the same friends.”

Nadal’s girlfriend, Maria Francesca Perello, is a business studies university student in Majorca.

Today, Nadal still trains at the Manacor club, where paint peels from the pink facade and weeds grow in the crumbling tarmac courts. Toni leads Rafael’s practices, which sometimes run to four hours of high-intensity hitting. Toni isn’t paid for this coaching; he supports his family with a share of the profits from the window company, which had a net income of 2.5 million euros in 2007.

At times, the coach has let Nadal make mistakes to teach him a lesson. Eric Babolat, chief executive officer of racket company Babolat, says in 2004 he overheard Rafael’s agent Costa alert Toni that Rafael was about to eat three chocolate croissants before a preliminary match at the Paris Masters. Costa was concerned the calorie-rich pastries would make Nadal sluggish on the court.

U.S. Open

“Toni told Carlos to let him, that he will learn that he will lose the match,” Babolat says. “Rafa did lose that match. That says a lot about Toni’s coaching style.”

That approach so far has paid off in six Grand Slam victories as Nadal sets his sights on the U.S. Open, the last major event of the year, played at Flushing Meadows in the New York borough of Queens, starting on Aug. 31.

“The U.S. Open is a big goal right now,” Nadal said at Indian Wells.

For the Spaniard, winning the event is the key to gaining bigger endorsements in the U.S. and possibly even surpassing Federer’s earnings, the University of Liverpool’s Cannon says.

“Nadal could outearn Federer,” he says. “The big question is whether the market would allow for those kinds of earnings. The market for big, international sponsorships is flat right now.”

The same indefatigable style that’s helped Nadal win could also lead to injuries that curtail his career.

‘Injury Prone’

“Everyone in the industry knows that because of his power tennis, Nadal is injury prone,” says Frank van den Wall Bake, a sports marketing consultant in Hilversum, Netherlands. At the start of 2006, Nadal skipped the Australian Open due to a recurring stress fracture injury to his foot. In 2008, after playing 93 matches -- the most of any player on the men’s tour -- he pulled out of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai and the Davis Cup final in Argentina because of tendonitis in his knees.

Toni blames the injuries on the ATP World Tour, the governing body of the men’s tennis tour, which he says schedules too many tournaments on hard courts.

“It’s the fault of the ATP; they don’t look after the health of the players,” Toni says. “If you brake hard reaching a ball traveling at 100 kilometers per hour on a hard court, your joints suffer.”

Maturing Look

Sponsors are betting on Nadal for the long haul, with Babolat signing a 10-year deal with him in 2007. Nike is also banking on many more years with Nadal. He debuted his new attire, which might widen his appeal to an older audience, at an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi this year.

“I was really impressed he was wearing a shirt,” says Lisa Behring, a 45-year-old mother from Blackhawk, California, who attended the Indian Wells tournament. “It’s kind of nice not to see the arm hair. The sleeveless top was very teenagerlike.”

Nadal’s mature outfit hasn’t stopped him from acting like a teenager, particularly when playing video games in the dead time between matches. Marc Lopez, Nadal’s friend and occasional doubles partner, says the two men play video soccer when they’re on the road. The price of losing is public humiliation.

“Normally, we make the other person go down to the middle of the hotel lobby and do 10 push-ups, or 10 kangaroo jumps,” Lopez says.

With Toni’s blessing, Nadal also changed his on-road appearance late last year. He traded his Kia Sorento for a $270,000 Aston Martin DBS -- the same car driven by Daniel Craig in the 2008 James Bond movie Quantum of Solace.

Federer’s Challenge

What hasn’t changed is Nadal’s passion to win, and that means beating Federer. One Grand Slam shy of Pete Sampras’s record 14 titles, the Swiss isn’t about to willingly pass the torch to Nadal, who turns 23 in June. At Indian Wells, Federer told reporters that he likes Nadal’s chances of winning the four majors this year.

“He definitely has a shot to do it,” Federer said. “I know there’s many guys out there that won’t let that happen, and I am one of them.”

Nadal, ever modest, said it’s unlikely that he’ll also triumph in the remaining three Grand Slam events this year.

“My chances are really small,” Nadal said at Indian Wells, holding up two fingers just barely apart to show exactly how small.

With a potent mix of a dedicated family, unsurpassed athleticism and youth, Nadal will shatter many more records. He may even become tennis’s No. 1 moneymaker too -- only on Toni’s terms, when the time is right.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a8HFqsqo.3wA&refer=home

 Posted: 06.05.09 12:39. Post subject: Радио Бамос. На мист..

Радио Бамос. На мистической волне

Ксения Витряк

В последнее время я пишу в блог не тогда когда хочется и не тогда когда надо, а когда есть возможность. Вот сейчас у меня есть возможность поделиться впечатлениями от Мастерса в Риме) Но поскольку это уже не очень актуально, то пусть это будет также и вступление к мадридскому Мастерсу, какая разница – все идет к тому, что будут те же яйца только в профиль.

Моя теннисная френдлента взволнована. Народ единогласно предлагает молиться, а жж-френд morteleth предлагает кроме того чтоб молиться еще слушать радио Бамос – спасибо ему за это изобретение, я его позаимствовала для названия этого поста. Я тоже взволнована и поставила себе в статус в гуглтоке фразу позаимствованную у Тиньора или Бодо, не помню – «В жизни есть три неотвратимые вещи: смерть, налоги и Надаль на грунте».

Короче, Надаль продолжает поражать воображение. Я уже не раз слышала такое мнение – мол, Рафа выиграл три титула за три недели и при этом не было похоже, чтоб он сильно выкладывался и чтоб вообще выкладывался, ну разве что так, на ключевых очках, и я с этим согласна. Знаете, мне в связи с этим вспомнился Нео в концовке первой части Матрицы. Как он тогда умер, потому что его застрелили много-много раз, а потом воскресе, силой мысли высосал из себя пульки и стал снова драться с агентами. Помните как он дрался? Агент просто уже выходит за рамки своих возможностей, а Нео с ленцой такой отбивается одной левой. Надаль эти три недели напоминал мне Нео. Мне кажется, что даже если б на него «напали» сразу и Федерер, и Джокович, и Мюррей, как куча агентов напала на Нео уже в третьей части Матрицы, Рафа с ними сначала подрался бы, а когда понял бы что силы все-таки не равны, сделал бы финт ушами и улетел в небо. То есть другими словами сделал бы нечто такое, что другим недоступно даже если суммировать возможности всех этих других, и как Нео победил бы просто потому что не проиграл. Ну вы понимаете.

Вроде бы все ясно – Надаль на грунте благодаря своему неподражаемому уникальному стилю и до сих пор кажется что неисчерпаемым физическим возможностям имеет игровое преимущество. И не просто преимущество, а большое преимущество. Но выигрывать все подряд это уже отдает какой-то прям чертовщиной. Причем это ощущение у меня возникло именно в Риме. Ну ладно Монте-Карло – перед ним был перерыв, это начало грунтового сезона, надо в очередной раз дать понять, кто тут хозяин, хотя чего уж тут понимать. Ну ладно Барселона – там из первой четверки никого кроме Надаля не было. Но в Риме, особенно когда я смотрела их финал с Джоковичем и особенно первый сет, меня прям накрыло этой мистической волной.

Когда Рафа выигрывает сет с явным преимуществом, с брейком или с двумя у заведомо более слабого соперника – тут все понятно, так как подчинено законам нашего мира. Но когда он имеет дело с равным соперником, во всяком случае на всех остальных покрытиях, когда соперник показывает великолепный теннис, когда игра идет абсолютно равная (может это иллюзия?), очко в очко, и дело доходит до тай-брейка – почему именно Надаль выигрывает этот чертов тай-брейк? В этом сезоне на грунте он сыграл два тай-брейка – в финале Рима с Джоковичем и в полуфинале Монте-Карло с Энди М – и оба выиграл. Но даже если б он этот тай-брейк проиграл (как Федереру, например, проиграл три тай-брейка из семи за всю их грунтовую историю), почему такое ощущение, что если б это был тай-брейк решающего сета (как в полуфинале Ролан Гарроса с Джоковичем в прошлом году или как с Федерером три раза подряд (!) в 2006-м – Монте-Карло, Рим, Ролан Гаррос), то его непременно выиграл бы Надаль? Откуда эта уверенность? Ответ один – эту уверенность рождает эмпирический опыт. Но это ведь не доказательство! Обычно эмпирический опыт подталкивает ученых к обнаружению какого-то закона природы, но это же только половина дела, потом этот закон нужно доказать, доказать, что он действительно существует. Почему он выигрывает ВСЕГДА? Даже если очко в очко, даже если ему не везет, даже если везет его сопернику, даже если он в итоге за сет выигрывает меньшее количество очков. Из каких таких воздушных атомов Рафа ткет это свое неоспоримое, непререкаемое преимущество? Это ВСЕГДА нельзя объяснить только его грунтовым превосходством. Преимущество определенного стиля на определенном покрытии это допустим 33% гарантии. Ну накинем еще 33% за счет физики. Ну еще 33% за счет характера. Цифры, если не понятно, это от балды, можете раскидать процентовку по собственному усмотрению (или можете поменять цифры местами, гы-гы) – не суть. Суть в том, что остается этот чертов 1%, который непонятно что такое и откуда взялся, но именно он решает все и именно он отвечает за это ВСЕГДА.

Я с нетерпением жду Мастерса в Мадриде. Скажу кощунственное – хочу, чтобы Надаля там кто-то обыграл. Я не могу пожертвовать Ролан Гарросом, это святое, а Мадрид черт с ним. И под кем-то я конечно не имею в виду случайных людей, их победы из-за того что Рафа натер мозоли или устал не интересны. Я имею в виду нашу славную тройку, и мне все равно кто это будет, главное чтобы в равной бескомпромиссной борьбе. Скажу так – я не желаю Рафе проиграть, я желаю кому-то его победить. Я хочу увидеть, что это возможно.

http://www.sports.ru/blog/vitryak/7924353.html

 Posted: 06.05.09 19:23. Post subject: специальный проект М..

специальный проект Марка, посвященный лучшим спортсменам современности. Рафа среди них. я не знала, что он первый испанец в истории, который заканчивает год (2008) первой ракеткой мира. ни Мойе, ни Ферреро это не удавалось.

http://archivo.marca.com/tenis/2008/nadal-numero-uno//index.html

зы. Ксению явно заносит в последнее время. чушь пишет.

 Posted: 06.05.09 20:58. Post subject: Рафаэль Надаль: «Каж..

Рафаэль Надаль: «Каждый новый турнир – это новая история»

Несмотря на сверхуспешные выступления в текущем грунтовом сезоне, первая ракетка мира испанец Рафаэль Надаль не считает, что стартующий вскоре турнир серии Masters 1000 в Мадриде и последующий «Ролан Гаррос» у него в кармане.

«Неважно, как я сыграю в Мадриде и на «Ролан Гаррос» – то, чего я добился в текущем грунтовом сезоне уже невероятно. Сейчас я просто счастлив.

Честно говоря, я сам удивлен тем, что смог выиграть последние три турнира. Ранее мне подобное не удавалось. Теперь же я знаю, что способен на это, что не может не радовать. Тем не менее, каждый новый турнир – это новая история, отличающаяся от того, что ты испытывал раньше. В теннисе никогда не знаешь наперед – надо просто выходить и стараться играть как можно лучше, тогда и результат придет. Сейчас же мне необходимо сконцентрироваться на успешном выступлении в Мадриде», – приводит слова испанца «Евроспорт».
http://www.sports.ru/tennis/7933104.html

 Posted: 08.05.09 03:33. Post subject: Strokes Of Genius: F..

Strokes Of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played
by Richard Osborn
Insidetennis.com

Having recently rescued a copy of The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson’s acclaimed account of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893) from the publishers clearinghouse that is my bedside table, I can’t help but wonder why it took more than a century for someone to vividly document such a pivotal moment in American history. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of intriguing characters.

When it comes to tennis, the characters don’t get much more compelling than Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, whose ever-amplifying rivalry is taking the sport to new heights. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait decades for an account of their All England Club epic of last summer, which (all due respect to Mssrs. Borg and McEnroe) in most minds has now usurped the ‘80 Wimbledon final as the reigning GMOAT (Greatest Match Of All Time). And who better to pen the play-by-play of record than SI wordsmith Jon Wertheim? Whether he’s spending a week on the road with the Harlem Globetrotters or providing us with insightful, behind-the-scenes takes at the U.S. Open, Wertheim possesses the rare ability to pull readers in and make them feel as if they’ve just scored a ringside/rinkside/courtside seat.

In Strokes of Genius, Wertheim revisits Nadal’s five-set, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 triumph in shot-by-shot detail, all the while taking us into the locker room, into the Friends’ Box and into the minds of the Nos. 1-2 players in the world. “This match had it all,” Wertheim writes. “Skill, courage, self-sufficiency, sportsmanship, grace, discipline, gallantry, poise, intelligence, injury, recovery, fibrillations of momentum, even acts of God. The match was also significant for what it lacked. Melodrama, pornographic trash talk, cheating. There was neither a scoreboard telling fans when to clap nor a public address announcer with a cartoonishly baritone voice. No cheerleaders, no goofy mascots, no booing, no piped in music during breaks in play or unnaturally peppy men firing T-shirts into the crowd via air cannon.”

Two hundred eighty-eight minutes into the match, Nadal hit an unremarkable backhand that Federer, in turn, dumped into the net. The Mallorcan fell on his back in exhaustion, barely able to raise his fists in celebration. He had just defeated Federer Almighty, who had finally been dethroned after winning five straight Wimbledon titles. As Wertheim puts it: “This was the great John L. Sullivan losing to Gentleman Jim Corbett, Y.A. Tittle kneeling in the mud of the football field, blood streaming down his face.”

–



STROKES OF GENIUS: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played
By L. Jon Wertheim, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 208 pages, $24

 Posted: 08.05.09 09:26. Post subject: Tatiana О, спасибо ..

Tatiana
О, спасибо за эту статью! Это та самая книга Jon Wertheim, о которой я когда-то писала на основном форуме. Джон связался по e-mail с Daylily c VB.com, они договорились созвониться, и минут 40 говорили о Рафе и его болельщиках. Джон тогда собирал материал для этой книги. Надо обязательно купить.

 Posted: 08.05.09 11:22. Post subject: Сегодня ехала на раб..

Сегодня ехала на работу и в метро рядом со мной села девушка и открыла свежий номер журнала "Лиза".
Я, честно говоря, уже почти закрыла глаза, собираясь в дороге по обыкновению вздремнуть , как вдруг у меня как-будто в глаза резануло слово Надаль, и я спать передумала...
Заметочка была совсем крошечная, но я даже не знаю, что и подумать...
Было написано, что в Нью-Йорке прошло дефиле Dressed in kilt (или что-то в этом духе) и во время этого дефиле на подиум в килтах (!!!!) вышли многие неожиданные персонажи. Среди них первым был назван Рафаэль Надаль , а также среди прочих и актриса Энди Макдауэл (с ремаркой - кто сказал, что женщинам нельзя носить килты!!!) ...
Я даже не знаю, что и подумать!!! Рафа в Нью-Йорке вроде бы был в последний раз во время ЮСО... Но принимать участие в дефиле, да еще и в килте!!!!!!! Я бы за такое зрелище многое не пожалела!!!!!
Утка наверное... Но номер свежий... И на фотке (тоже крошечной) - вроде бы только Энди Макдауэл в юбке...
Но глаза пока никак на место не вставляются!!!!!!!!!!

 Posted: 08.05.09 20:08. Post subject: Ольга Коп пишет: Ут..

Ольга Коп пишет:

quote:

Утка наверное... Но номер свежий...

Как будто в свежем номере не может быть утки

 Posted: 09.05.09 12:30. Post subject: зы. Ксению явно зано..

quote:

зы. Ксению явно заносит в последнее время. чушь пишет.

Согласна...Особенно вот это, насчет "нашей славной тройки"...

quote:

Скажу кощунственное – хочу, чтобы Надаля там кто-то обыграл. Я не могу пожертвовать Ролан Гарросом, это святое, а Мадрид черт с ним. И под кем-то я конечно не имею в виду случайных людей, их победы из-за того что Рафа натер мозоли или устал не интересны. Я имею в виду нашу славную тройку, и мне все равно кто это будет, главное чтобы в равной бескомпромиссной борьбе.

По мне, так Рафе очень нежелательно проигрывать на грунте кому-то из этой тройки...А проигрыш кому-то "случайному " ничего не изменит, и не будет иметь никакого значения, как в прошлом году с Ферреро...

 Posted: 09.05.09 12:47. Post subject: Скажу кощунственное..

quote:

Скажу кощунственное – хочу, чтобы Надаля там кто-то обыграл. Я не могу пожертвовать Ролан Гарросом, это святое, а Мадрид черт с ним. И под кем-то я конечно не имею в виду случайных людей, их победы из-за того что Рафа натер мозоли или устал не интересны. Я имею в виду нашу славную тройку, и мне все равно кто это будет, главное чтобы в равной бескомпромиссной борьбе. Скажу так – я не желаю Рафе проиграть, я желаю кому-то его победить. Я хочу увидеть, что это возможно.

Да, умереть и не встать после таких слов...
Почему в игре Рафаэля надо видеть с сильным соперником исключительно чертовщинку? В этом то и есть труд, что надо быть очень сильным и в моральном и в физическом плане. Особенно психологически..Ведь игра построена не на технике одной, это же чувства с обоих сторон...
Не знаю, мне не понравился этот пост...

 Posted: 09.05.09 20:09. Post subject: Надаль высказался пр..

Надаль высказался против возможных нововведений

Король грунта Рафаэль Надаль высказал своё мнение относительно разговоров о возможной смене покрытия на грунтовых турнирах. По слухам, привычное красное покрытие могут заменить на синее.

"Я однозначно против такого нововведения. На мой субъективный взгляд, грунтовой сезон имеет наиболее богатую историю в теннисе. Всем известно, что покрытие на турнирах сезона красное, а не какое-либо другое. Теннис не просто шоу или бизнес. Теннис прежде всего имеет традиции и самобытную историю, которую нельзя так просто нарушать", — приводит слова Надаля издание Tennis.

http://www.championat.ru/tennis/news-215960.html

 Posted: 09.05.09 20:12. Post subject: Надаль: календарь АТ..

Надаль: календарь АТР явно перегружен

Первая ракетка мира испанец Рафаэль Надаль высказал своё недовольство в связи с большим количеством игр, предусмотренных в календаре АТР.

"Фактом остаётся то, что календарь АТР перегружен: в мужских турнирах предусмотрено слишком много матчей. Но, несмотря на это, я чувствую себя хорошо: я нахожусь в хорошей физической и психологической форме", — сказал Надаль в интервью Reuters.

http://www.championat.ru/tennis/news-215878.html