Vamos Rafa!

Well, well, well... I think I have disappointed some frequent blog-readers of mine by going through 3 whole matches of Nadal winning without any blog entry on the aforementioned. Well... This makes up for it all, I guess. Plus, I have a very valid reason for not having posted any blog entries. My cousins are expected tomorrow, and as a result of the confirmation of their trip, our entire household has gone into spring cleaning. I can actually see the bottom of my study table after approximately 2 years. Also, I can see the corner of my room after approximately 2 years having kindly donated the large IIT books obstucting the view to a poor unsupecting junior! And, the little time I have online, I spend looking at the official Roland Garros site. ( http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html if anyone's interested!) In fact, I have been spending do much time on the site and seeing the Open that my mind has invlountarily started noticing weird things, like the logo of Roland Garros, besides being and R and a G with two lines, actually resembles a player running to reach a drop shot. I have begun to admire (the name of the person who designed the logo... no idea who he or she is) greatly, because, as anyone who ever tried to design a logo will tell you, it is no easy task to combine letters and include a relavent graphic at the same time!
Now onto the real stuff... A brief review of Nadal's round 2,3 and 4 matches, one by one.
Round 2:
Some almost 30-year-old American Chink called Kevin Kim for an opponent. I got a little scared for some time, considering this Kim dude had striking similarities to Michael Chang, and no need for me to remind everyone of the fact that Michael Chang won the French Open. Later realised that the poor guy has been taking part in grand slams since '96, and has got past the 2nd round only once. And that his career high singles rank was 63, some one and a half years back. Nadal belted him 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. I believe I brought Rafa a fair bit of luck by making my headband between points.
Round 3:
Rafa's first encounter with a seed, it also happened to be on his 20th birthday. I was fully scared, and I am justified in being so. Paul Henri-Mathieu. Seed 29. Age 24. Current rank of 32. Played a particularly good match last year in Roland Garros in the 3rd round against Guillermo Canas, I think. I was quite scared for Rafa. My sister did not help matters with her continuous "I have a FEELING that Mathieu is gonna beat Nadal!". Match started quite badly for Rafa. First (super-tight) set ended in Mathieu winning it by the skin of his teeth - 7-5. I was really disappointed but continued to root for Nadal. (Duh!) Second set went Rafa's way and he ended up taking it 6-4. But I could see that he wasn't going to have the match easily. When Rafa was serving for the third set at 5-4, 15-all, he suddenly walked to the chair and pointed to his throat. I was heart broken. But it turned out that Rafa had just got a banana piece stuck in his throat! He took the set 6-4. As the fourth set grew older and older, I could see that Nadal was tiring out. As my sister reminded me, he's not used to long matches - if it's clay, he belts and if it's not, he gets belted. Crowd by this time was gunning for Rafa's throat. Somehow, he hung on, and sanity prevailed. He wrapped up the fourth set 6-4.
I was on the edge of my seat throughout the match. Each point was so hard fought for by both players! It was an amazing piece of tennis, and I'm sure I would've enjoyed the match tons more if I hadn't been such a big Nadal supporter!
Saw Rafa celbrating his birthday later on. He had this huge birthday cake with these two huge candles, and he almost got the entire cake splattered onto his face by Nicolas Massu. Belated Happy Birthday, Rafa!
Round 4:
Lleyton Hewitt! Need I say more? I was s***-scared, to say the least. I mean, a former world number one, 2 time (?) grand slam champion, and one of the grittiest players ever. Gosh! My fear was somewhat diluted when Rafa won the first set 6-2. I was just beginning to feel confident and all when Hewitt won the second set on a freak point. My sister again began her "I think Rafa's gonna lose" stints. After that it was pretty much belting. Rafa won the next two sets 6-4, 6-2 to advance into the quarters. He now faces Novak Djokovic, whom I find absolutely adorable, but hope he loses to Rafa in spite of that.
Somewhere towards the end of Rafa's Hewitt match, he really warmed my heart. (He never fails to do that!) On the verge of winning, Rafa began to point to one corner of the stadium. I thought that he was pointing into the crowd because someone had a distracting ringtone or something. Chair umpire started saying something but Rafa continued to point. Chair umpire Maria Pascaul (A guy. Seriously!) got off and he and Rafa had an animated discussion and began to look in the direction in which Rafa had pointed. I was properly curious now. The next thing I knew, this tiny ballboy comes scuttling along with blood pouring out of his nose and the chair umpire tells him to go and get treated. Apparently the ballboys aren't allowed to leave the court unless the chair umpire tells them to do so. So Nadal saved a life! (Yeah, yeah, I know it's a silly thing to write about, but one overlooks such facts when the person in question is Rafael Nadal!)
My time spent with the French Open has also led me to start noticing and realising weird things, as I said. One of them is that Rafa's left shoe has "Vamos" written at the back and the right one has "Rafa". When read continuously, his shoes read "Vamos Rafa" which is Spanish for "Go Rafa!". Also, April 8th last year (which happens to be my birthday!) heralded the start of a new era for Rafa. He hasn't lost a match on clay since that day.
As you can see folks, I'm very busy doing absolutely nothing. I'm still open to suggestions for movies to watch/ books to read/ anything to do.