Rafa vs. Rafa

Majorca's number one son Rafa Nadal was the talk of the town last week following his epic defeat of his great rival and five-time-titleholder Roger Federer in the Wimbledon finals last Sunday. The pros were full of praise for the quality of the match, Björn Borg called it the most nail-biting final ever and both John McEnroe and one-time British hopeful Tim Henman said it was the greatest match they had ever seen.

Rafa's English - despite being still peppered with a handful of unforgivable mistakes - does seem to have improved somewhat since his early attempts to express himself in the language. Although nowhere near as good as Federer's English, Rafa still needs to work out his infinitive / -ing ending confusion, but he has made a fair bit of progress, so credit where credit's due.

Fellow sporting Spaniard and namesake Rafa Benitez seems to have mastered the language more quickly, but maybe several years living in Liverpool may have something to do with it. The Liverpool manager seems a little more relaxed speaking in English than the Wimbledon champ... so let's have a look at the two of them.

This first clip of Rafa Nadal shows him answering a few very simplistic questions about his life on and off the tennis court.

Rafa Benitez meanwhile is seen here entertaining reporters with his slant on that quintessentially English sport of sports... no, not football - cricket!

Oh, and here's what the papers had to say about Rafa (Nadal) and his victory:

• Daily Mail
• The Sun
• Daily Mirror
• Daily Express
• Daily Telegraph
• The Scotsman
• The Sporting Life
• The Independent
• International Herald Tribune (USA)
• The Times (Rafa's Blog)

... and last Spanish Wimbledon men's champ Manolo Santana speaks to The Times...

Rafa Nadal: English Blogger

Rafa Nadal,currently trying to get his play on grass up to the standard of his Federer-beating play on clay - it's Wimbledon time again - has started writing a blog.

"Ha!", I hear you cry, "how can you be sure that it's really him writing it, and not some Rafa-obsessed fangirl?" Well for a start it's published via The Times' website, which must vouch for its authenticity (if we forget about the Hitler Diaries for a minute, that is)...

... and secondly his English still has... how shall I put it... room for improvement... although fair play to the lad, it is a huge advance on his early tongue-tied replies in English to journalists in the past.

Can you correct his mistakes?
Rafa Nadal's Wimbledon Blog.... in English!

Footnote:
After reading Nadal's first post he comes clean and admits that "most of you know that my English is not that good normally. It is not that I suddenly learned English perfectly. I am writing this blog in Spanish and then it is getting translated into English. Maybe one day I will be good enough to write it in English all by myself, but for the moment it is not the case."

Can he really not afford a native English speaker as his translator then, or have standards slipped so low in the sector?