Player Blog: Rafael Nadal @ the Sony Ericsson Open

FRIDAY, MARCH 28

Hi everybody,
Here we go with my second blog entry from Miami. I am sorry it is always coming late at night but I only have the time to sit down and write it after I come back from dinner. This is true, believe me, since I don't have that much free time during the day. I do think from time to time on what I can write, but physically I don't have much time during a normal day. I finished tonight all my work at 10 pm!. Then I went for dinner (a very Spanish time) and here I am.
So to explain you my day, we had decided the day before to meet at the lobby of the hotel at 11 am. We went to have a coffee next door to the hotel and got on the car to drive to Key Biscayne at around noon. I had a warm up practice court at 1 pm so we thought we had plenty of time. Bu the truth is that we got to the site very late. It took us over 45 minutes to do a very little distance because of the heavy traffic. I am staying at a hotel in Brickell and so it is not far away. But the traffic was unbelievable. I normally need like 30 to 45 minutes to get ready for a practice or warm up since I have to do the taping of both feet and the taping I use on my knees. Lots of people keep asking me about those tapes I wear. I simply have them for protection, just in case. Since I had that injury on my knees, I wear them. It worked with the first one and then I got injured the second one so that's the only reason.
So as I say, I got late and had to do everything really fast, which I don't like to do when it is about this. Got my warm up and then simply waited in the locker room for the start of my match. I don't think I need to talk about the match since you probably read here, on this website, the reports about it. It is always good to start well and with a striahgt-set win to build up more confidence, but it is also not that important. At least for me.I left the tournament site around 7.30 pm and had a meeting at my hotel with my manager Carlos Costa. Initially it was supposed to be a 30 minutes meeting but in the end it lasted for almost two hours. Not a problem but I had to do a TV interview and I started the interview at 9.45 pm! I am sorry Aarthi (the woman that interviewed me) for being so late...
Anyway, tomorrow I have also a match but this time doubles. I have a practice at 12 noon and then the routine work to get ready for the match.
See you tomorrow and thanks,

Rafa