Rest your weary head.

Fanatic Omes:

Rafa on his much needed break:

“Be with the friends, be with the family, play some golf, relax, go fishing maybe. That’s relaxing, too. You know, have a little bit of distraction mentally, think of other things, not tennis.”

The little darling also called up the Queens tournament director, (he pulled out of doubles) and said:

"Sorry I feel I let you down."

Danger: he is reaching epic proportions of adorable.

(Pic: B1PR from Rafa's fbook)

Readme

Fanatic Omes:

• Rafa has Rog’s back over his pullout. I’m with Raf/Rog on this one. But what do I know, I’m not organising an entire tournament, and I can’t imagine what it’s like as a tournament director to have this sort of spanner in the works and I feel sorry for them over there, but surely you’d have to have foresight about these things. And thus not pin your hopes on one player. What if Rog was actually injured? He has to look after himself. I think we forget what these athletes put themselves through day in day out. Especially the champions; poor lads and lassies.

• The Muzzard you don’t know but love. I’m increasingly becoming more and more of a Muzz fanatic and I kinda like it. I love how he is off court, and who am I kidding, on court as well. Murray matches just wouldn’t be the same without the self deprecation, grimacing, and yelling.  It’s not like he’s taken more of the Rafa space in my heart, it’s more like my heart has increased a few inches and Muzzle has parked in there.
 

• I'm sure you've all read this. Sigh. I wish we could live in a world full of rainbows and smiles.

• Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the world...

(Pic: thejamesbondbooks.com) 

So like, I went to Queens...

Fanatic Omes:

Queuing for long enough to make life-long friends and being treated like vermin at the entrance because for some reason, for about 2 and a half hours only residents to the area were allowed into the site aside,...I had a lovely time.

We arriv-ed at the tournament site, where they were kind enough to dangle the scores of the Rafa/Stepanek in front of our eyes whilst we were being held in the queue. 

With Rafa serving for the match I prayed that he would be a dear and take it to three. So you can imagine the joy when Rafa felt my cosmic synergy and kindly oblidged; so after hustlin’ we got to watch the last set. (I missed Rafa’s fall though.)

 

I also got to watch James Ward! ‘Twas was a lovely jubbly atmosphere despite the lack of people. And now the former no. 208 has only just gone and made it to the quarters. Vamos James!

 

Then came the crux of the evening: Rafa’s doubles play was halted due to poor light. And being a freak, I had the foresight to run to one of the court one exits to watch him come out. And then he did! Just can say: why can’t more guys look like Rafa? : (

Then it was home time. :’ (

So I’ll leave you with the inner monologue in my head for the five seconds I saw Rafs up close:

“Oh Rafa’s leaving the court, OMG OMG, let’s run to go see him up close!

Poor Rafa! I can’t imagine being mobbed like all the time. Not to mention people shoving camera phones in your face. I feel so bad. Swarms of people are just following him.

Proceeds to chase Rafa towards the locker room.

I miss Rafa. “

More photos after the jump break. 

Rafa and Queens and things.

(Pic: Omes Tennis)

Fanatic Omes:

So I’m sure you’ve all heard Rafa has qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals! Ole Ole Ole! (cf. this).

So...I WENT TO QUEENS TODAY : D. Detailed post about the happy haps coming up soon. Oh and I’m going tomorrow as well. Oh and I saw Rafa up close. Thank you and goodnight.

Here is some cuteness to keep you going through the night. Not in a gross way.
 

Ward-ing off Opposition

Neutral Omes:

The story of Queens so far has been world no. 216 and Britain’s no. 2 James Ward’s victory over world no. 14 and 4^th seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. The Brit closed out the victory in straight sets - 76 63, after winning a convincing tiebreak 73 and using the momentum to break early in the 2^nd set. Ward is currently being mentored by Argentinean mixed martial arts cage fighter, Diego Visotzky, who according to (a slightly frightened) Ward, enjoys putting his mentee in headlocks. The Brit now faces defending champion Sam Querrey and will certainly need all the fight he can muster.

Fanatic Omes:

Congrats to James Ward but doesn’t he want to go to the gym? I think all the Brit baby boys should take a page from Andy Murray’s book. Andy is a brick.

In other news, how cute is this photo?

"Hi guys. I'm cute"

 (Pics: Getty)

 

The Grass is Greener

Fanatic Omes:

It’s grass o’ clock! Which means tennis comes to London where I live. Which also means I get depressed that I can’t pack up and move into the tournament sites; – so tantalisingly close yet so far.

Anyway so here’s the 411 so far:

Rafa, looking all bicep-y, practices at Queens

Fed pulls out of Halle
Nole, Gasquet and Fish pull out of Queens
Roddick goes for the ankle-sock look....ok

Nalbandian and Roddick do doubles at Queens

Muzz was also there

Serena returns to the tour at Eastbourne (well rest of WTA, it’s been fun)

Would it be ridiculous to buy a grounds ticket and wonder around a tennis tournament by yourself?...No? Ok.

 

Roland Garros Crown Firmly Screwed onto Rafa's Head

"I want 7"

Neutral Omes:

Rafael Nadal has done it again. The King of Clay took on Roger Federer, saving his best tennis for last to clinch his 6^th Roland Garros trophy; equalling Bjorn Borg’s record and securing his world no. 1 ranking. This is the tenth Grand Slam title for the Mallorcan. It was another special, high-quality match between these two great rivals of the game. One thing’s certain – Roger Federer did not lose this match; Nadal won it.

It’s hard to imagine that this was the same man as last week’s Nadal who bluntly admitted that he was relatively low in confidence and didn’t feel as if he had being playing well enough to win the tournament. Last week saw a scare in his opening round; close 3-set matches against qualifiers; a flurry of forehand errors; a decreased weight of shot; a tentative backhand and a slight decline in movement. But by the second week Nadal seemed to wrap all that into a Babolat ball and smack it off the Eiffel Tower as he was very much back to his sensational form.

Ooooh, look who's all ready and rearing to go!

As the final’s 75 76 57 61 score line suggests, the match was competitive from start to finish with both men taking advantage of the others’ troughs in intensity; and making the most of their own peaks. Federer carried the form that he’d maintained throughout the tournament into the match and Nadal had to play at 100% of himself to close out the win. But that he did.

The Swiss came out firing; leading 52 in the first set, but Nadal showed that resilience we’re used to seeing to fight back and take the set from him. Momentum was with Nadal in the 2^nd set right up until set point, when the heavens opened and rain suddenly and uninvitingly broke out sending the players off court briefly. Federer would have thanked said heavens though because he managed to break and take the set to a tie-break. However Nadal regained momentum and steamrolled ahead winning to 3.

Mickey trying to steal Rafa's shine. Back off Mickey.

Nadal continued in the 3^rd set delivering crushing blows, but this time it was the Federer’s turn to fight. A slip in the Spaniard’s concentration allowed the Swiss to break to love in the 7^th game and his “light’s-out” form that he began the match with returned for the rest of the set to see him seize it. 

The final set was more competitive than the score suggested but Nadal was a man on a mission, playing incredible tennis, taking all his chances and denying Federer all his, to win the championships. 

He's like the prince Spain has never had

His belief, determination, honesty and approach these past two weeks has shown the world why he has conquered all surfaces; remained the world's best for 100 weeks; has ten Slam trophies and an Olypmic gold medal in his cabinet; and why he’s such a deserving champion.

I bet all you lil' critters are wondering what Fanatic Omes has to say about this. Well go'on and click "Read more" to find out, ya hear.

Standing by their man.

Fanatic Omes:

It seems Nike has pre-empted  a Rafa victory for today! Came across this lovely display in the Niketown shop window on Oxford Street in London. Yes I did shriek and clap when I saw the pics and yes, people did look at me like I was a freak. Vamos.

(Pics: Omes Tennis)
 

Li Na is the Roland Garros Champion

(Pic: Reuters)

Neutral Omes:

Congratulations to the new Roland Garros champion, Li Na. Her performance epitomised grit, will, heart and resilience. She's achieved so much for China and thoroughly deserves everything she gets. She's a phenomenal personality with a big game and a big heart. Long may her run continue. 

Fanatic Omes:

Yay Li Na! I just love her, never mind I'm convinced I'm part Asian. Very happy for her and it's nice to see a new Roly G champion. Words of advice/reassurance to hubby: happy wife, happy life. Now go and enjoy some much-deserved champagne.
 

Roger and Rafa together again.

(Pic: AP)

Neutral Omes:

16 time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer showed us that he wasn't done yet by becoming the first man to beat the insatiable Novak Djokovic in 2011 and secure a place in yet another Slam final - something that we became quite accustomed to not seeing, (much to our surprise) in 2010. He will now try to achieve what only one man has done before - taking out long time rival - the reigning King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, in Roland Garros. His record against the Spaniard in the tournament - 0 and 3, certainly shows up the Swiss meastro as the underdog, but don't count him out just yet - after all he'd been 0 and 3 to Novak Djokovic all year. And look what happened.

Fanatic Omes:

Peeing my pants. (Vamos Rafito).