I still stand by my statement that Team Rafa is as much a part of his scheduling mistakes as he is. AT this point it doesn’t really matter, except that I hope his team will encourage him to rest more in the future.

It’s great to hear Rafa is in control of his own destiny.

But I am not a mothertongue Spanish so the subtleties could escape me.

I do hope Rafa gets better soon and can play they way we all love and respect. I miss him and it really hurt me to see how ‘not him’ he was when he played RG.

Laura

Thanks so much for your comments! I love getting the Rafanatics on the boards here at GTT. (And I am a Rafa fan, as I think any hard-core tennis fan should be!)

Maybe even more than Rafa, I love Uncle Toni. He’s a real character and a tennis genius – he deserves so much credit for helping Rafa! BUT! I don’t think it’s disrespectful to expect him to share some of the blame for Rafa’s scheduling errors. Yes, Rafa is a grown man and can make his own decisions, even if they’re bad ones. But U.T. is his coach. U.T. gets the (highly deserved) accolades, I think he’s man enough to share the criticism. Habits are learned young, and U.T. has been Rafa’s guide throughout his career.

Of course, if there is evidence that U.T. was on his own knees begging Rafa to go back to Manacor and leave Madrid to Fernando Verdasco and F-Lo, I’ll admire him even more!

But I agree, in the end, it doesn’t really matter why Rafa isn’t around. It just matters that he comes back fit and healthy.

Ditto! FeddyBear.

“so Fed can have another shot at kicking his !@## spanish ass.”

Oh, he can have yet another shot alright! Don’t you worry.

*****

FreakyFrites,

“Every step I took was a mistake, although nobody told me I would have been okay for Paris if I had dodged Madrid.”

I think what Rafa meant by that is that it wasn’t a given that skipping Madrid would’ve helped his case. That maybe he was already far gone, the damage done, and it wasn’t guaranteed that skipping Madrid would’ve helped. Of course, all of us Rafans wanted him to skip Madrid, it would’ve definitely been in his best interest (along with skipping Rotterdam, yes I know he promised them he’d be there, and Barcelona, yes I know that it’s his tennis club, and Davis Cup, yes I know how ADORES playing with his team.)Perhaps his injury needed even more time than what skipping Madrid would’ve given him.

At 23, Rafa has already proven that he is strong, both in spirit, heart, and mind. This is a mistake he made and it’s wonderful to see how he is handling the situation. He is owning up to his error, expressing his regret, and working extremely hard and finding a solution to right his wrong. What a champ <3 Making mistakes is part of the learning curve, it is apart of life. The best part is, he only has 23. I believe he can, and will, recover from this and come back stronger than ever!

Also, don't disrespect Uncle Toni FreakyFrites, or us Rafans just might have to bust out the cheese..we're talking blue cheese and cheddar!

Vamos Rafa! All of your fans love and miss you! Like many have said, take your sweet time, we can wait. Don't worry about our sanity, we'll keep each other out of the nut house with old interviews, matches, etc. . Miri will play a big part in that when she's back from Montreal . Rafa, you just do what you need to do so that you can be healthy and happy. That's what's most important to us. Get well soon. -8-@

Shoot! I’m sorry about Montreal. At least you’ll be in an awesome city amongst (almost) all the top tennis players in the world. . .and Rafa might still play.

I was joking a little with that Uncle Toni comment but am curious – what do you think he meant when he said “Every step I took was a mistake, although nobody told me I would have been okay for Paris if I had dodged Madrid.”?

To me this definitely sounds reproachful. Of course, I’m taking it out of context because I don’t speak Spanish. But like Maria’s shoulder, which I believe her own doctor didn’t diagnose correctly, I think Rafa’s team could have been a bit more proactive in finding out how bad his knees really were/are.

Teams share the glory when players do well and I think it’s fair for them to share the blame when bad mistakes are made – especially if what Rafa says is true and nobody spoke up about not playing.

That said, I’m a big fan of Uncle Toni and I sure hope Rafa keeps him in the players box for a long time to come!