RAFA'S RETURN!

Attention all tennis fans! I'm sure you've noticed a huge gap in our sport for the last 3 months… Rafa. It's been almost 12 weeks without him, and a lot's happened since. Tsonga won Toronto, Li Na retired, and Marin Cilic won a grand slam. Some crazy stuff's happened.

Every day of the summer I've been keeping my fingers crossed for good news. There's been bad news, potential good news, rumours and all, but I can now confidently say: Rafa's coming home.

I'm absolutely ecstatic. It's been an emotional few weeks.


On 15th September, Toni Nadal said that 'Rafa's backhand is on 80%. He will be ready for Astana, Beijing and Shanghai. The rest of the season will stay as planned' It happened to be my birthday on that day, and you know what? Best birthday present EVER.

(I've waited a few days before I released this news just to make sure it's reliable and official. What Toni announces is normally accurate, but I didn't want to give anyone false hope.)

Rafa's been hitting an increasing number of powerful 2 handed back hands, and it's been a while since he's been seen with the splint. The recovery obviously took longer than we expected, but this is Rafa remember, his body doesn't like to recover quickly…!

First Rafa will play an exhibition match in Astana, Kazakhstan against Tsonga on 25th September at 7pm. That's 2pm GMT.

Next it's Beijing. Starting on 29th September, the ATP 500 tournament should be a good practice before Shanghai and Paris.

Rafa has lost a lot of ranking points to widen the gap between himself and Djokovic, and Federer is very close behind. However, Rafa has very little points to defend in Asia, so if he can play to a good level, hopefully he can try to secure the end of year number 2 ranking. (Roger is number 2 in the race currently.)

Health is the most important thing. All I want right now is for Rafa to be back on tour, playing pain free, and it looks like that will happen.

I'm so incredibly excited to see him back on court very soon.

Get ready everyone, the king's returning.

Cincinnati Masters Preview

Toronto was an entertaining tournament with an unexpected winner. Tsonga played an incredible tournament, beating Djokovic, Murray, Dimitrov and Federer back to back. I was blown away with how well he was playing, a well deserved win.

Out with the old, In with the new.

I feel almost upset writing this preview. The emptiness I feel is almost unbearable. Rafa is still on injury break, and there's a minimum of 2 weeks to go until we see him on court again. However, the tournaments still go on, now it's time for the Western and Southern Open.

Djokovic had a very poor run this tournament. Out in the 3rd round to Tsonga, and not just beaten, thrashed. He struggled to win his opener against Monfils too. Critics put the flop down to the overwhelming effect of his wedding, but lets be honest, the world number 1 should have still been able to cope. His chances of winning in Cincinnati may be slightly lowered now, but he has the experience to fight back. It'll be interesting to see how he copes.

Federer had a good run in Toronto, reaching the final. He played well all tournament, but not brilliant. The final was messy, and it's not the usual Federer I'm used to seeing. Let's not count him out though, he has the talent and experience to improve just in time. This time though, I'm not picturing a win.

Murray was another victim of Jo's. He played well in my opinion, Jo just played out of this world. With Rafa not involved and Novak's form questioned, he could very much be a contender for the title.

Tsonga! Last week I didn't expect to be featuring him in this preview, but he surprised us. I've always been a fan of Jo, and this win was incredibly well deserved. Who knows what more he can do? Jo is in the running for a follow up title. Maybe this time the others will be a little more cautious though…

Dimitrov had a good run too. He reached the semi finals in Toronto, but was another victim of Tsonga. (By the way, I can't believe what I'm writing!) I thought he played well this tournament, he fought well. His difficult match with Anderson in the QF left him physically and mentally fatigued, so with a few days rest, he could potentially be a title winner. However, he's just missing the touch that sets him apart from the top guys.


They're my picks! Novak, Roger, Andy, Jo and Dimitrov are my selection for potential Cincinnati winners.



Stay strong Rafans, remember the big decision whether he will play US Open or not will be made on Tuesday. I will be glued to my twitter, so if you want to hear the news first, follow me @rafanadaladdict. Blog posts will be updated as soon as the news is out.