Sick of Rafole?...

...Who cares? Definetly not them. For the third consecutive time, an ATP Masters 1000 final will feature El Matador and Nole. (Because now, this simple short nickname means more than anything on the tennis map.)

It is my first post about Madrid since qualifications because,-shame on me!-, I haven't really watched anything (school and stuff). Yesterday, on Saturday, the situation was different. I forearmed with popcorn and watched the men's semifinals. Good choice! Rafa Nadal was just himself on clay, in his element, comfortable even when he was a set down against Federer. Many people said during and after the match that Roger played bad, he wasted chances and, those words again, he is down. If losing in the semifinals of a Masters against the clay Master means you are down, I am really sorry for all the other players. Maybe he is not in the best shape of his career, but Roger Federer will never be over until he retires. Because not winning a Grand Slam doesn't mean you're done with tennis. How many players would remain in the circuit if that was true?

On the other hand, Novak served a big scare to many, really many people in his semifinal against Thomaz Bellucci from Brazil. He was down a set and a break and everyone was talking about a possible sudden end of his streak of 31 wins in 2011 (33 overall). Not the case. Remember who you were watching? He managed to save the second set, 6-4. In the decisive, Bellucci was totally on Djokovic's territory. 6-1. The match was over and the best player of the year had booked a place for a final against the best player of the red surface.

This encounter was inevitable, in a good way. Who doesn't want to see this huge match? Their last meeting in Madrid, in the 2009 semifinals, lasted more than 4 hours. It was probably the best match of three sets I have ever seen. Only tennis gods know what will happen today between these two smaller tennis gods and who will hold the Ion Tiriac Trophy at the end of the day...

...the trophy which, by the way, is a very interesting one. I like to see something original, not only the cup type (which is beautiful as well).