**UPDATE** A big GRACIAS to Henry from Bogota for doing an excellent translation of the video – see the comments section to read about Manolo’s wisecrack and Rafa’s self-improvement motto.
Boy, I wish I knew Spanish (or had an audio version of Google translate), because this video is one great, big Rafa Bomb! Good thing he’s cute, so the language barrier doesn’t bother me too much. . .
Most of the footage is of Tuesday’s promotional event at the Barcelona Open for Nadal’s charitable foundation: Fundación Rafa Nadal. He and fellow Spanish Wimbledon Champ, Manolo Santana, exchanged racquets for the cameras, with Manolo’s historic 1966 stick likely going to Rafa’s next charity auction. Here’s the scoop from HCFoo:
Santana gave the foundation his heavy wooden Dunlop racquet used in the year when he won the Wimbledon Championships. In exchange, Nadal gave Santana his modern Babolat racquet which helped him win the 5th consecutive Monte Carlo Masters last week. Nadal apologized to Santana and said, “This is not so much history (referring to his Babolat tennis racquet).”
Nadal’s foundation focuses on “promoting the sport as an integration tool for those who need it the most, such as handicapped, immigrant and socially excluded people.” Click here to learn more about Rafa’s foundation.
Cute photo bonus! Rafa hit the Barcelona practice courts in his foundation’s cap:
Nadal plays Frederico Gil of Portugal in the second round of the Barcelona Open on Wednesday.
Also cool: Tommy Robredo also stopped by the press room to launch the first Open Memorial Santi Silvas, a new wheelchair tennis event organized by Robredo’s foundation in honor of his good friend and wheelchair player Santi Silvas. The event will become the premier wheelchair tennis event in Spain. (Click here for more.)
Great work, guys!
Thumbnail: Getty Images via Daylife
Nadal cap: REUTERS/Albert Gea (SPAIN SPORT TENNIS) via Daylife
Tags: Barcelona Open, Fundacion Rafa Nadal, Manolo Santana, Nadal, tennis, Tommy Robredo
RELATED ARTICLES ON GOTOTENNIS |
Loading ...
hi im a very loyal colombian fan of your blog, and i would love to help with the translation.
The introduction of the note its in catalan, and the anchorwoman says that rafa is in barcelona for the tournament and he met manolo santana who donate one of his racquets for rafa´s foundation; in the interview rafa says more or less this:
“its a very important tournament,the last four years everything have been great for me here, things turn out just perfect here in my club in barcelona and i wiil try give my best to have a very good result”
Then Manolo says: “The thing that i liked the most is that rafa’s been watching the racquet all the time and wondering “how the fuck this dude could played with this thing”
Albert Costa says something in catalan that i dont understand… i dont speak catalá very well.
Then Rafa says: “There´s always talk about how i am physically, but in the end its more important to see how is my tennis, because its been showed that physically i dont have any problems, and my body always responds great in the last couple of years”
Then they showed the presentation of the book sponsored by rafa’s foundation called “Game Set Match”, and rafa says “im conscious that im 22 years old and the day that i lost the desire to improve i will go to my home to do other things”
He starts to talk about soccer and says “im a fan of (real) madrid and mallorca, but its clear that my uncle (miguel angel nadal) played here (barcelona fc) for nine years, and the madridism its always exagerate (barcelona and madrid are death rivals, some people in barcelona dont like rafa because his fanatism for real madrid). I love this city and of course i wiil love that barcelona win the champions league (most important esuropean club soccer tournament).
The journalist talks about rafa´s debut against federico gil and the path to win his fith consecutive Conde de Godó.
Finally they showed images of rafa training in the Real Club de Tenis de Barcelona and make some promotion to see his matches on that network (IB3).
greetings from bogotá, colombia.
GRACIAS, Henry! This translation is fantastic – I’m so jealous of everyone who can speak multiple languages.
Manolo’s comment cracked me up! It’s true, though, I was wondering the same thing when I saw that tiny wooden racquet.
And I love that comment from Nadal: “The day I lose my desire to improve, I’ll move on.” That’s something we should all think about in our daily lives.
Thanks, again, Henry, for improving my blog!