Blog Post #4

The author build suspense in the book in a variety of ways. This can be seen when he is in the middle of his matches. He tells the score of each point, and goes on to be even more specific. He talks of each shot and how he felt hitting that shot. It expresses suspense because the feelings he shows and tells about are particular to each situation. For example, Nadal analyzes the point on page 138, "But I don't think, even now, that hitting it to his forehand would have been the right thing to do. Here's why: if I'd hit it there and he'd passed me, or he'd got the ball back and I'd missed, I'd have been devastated." This quote shows that Nadal paid attention to each point and therefore raised the suspense in the story. The way he did this was effective. It motivated me to keep asking the question, "What is going to happen next?" For this reason, I simply read on, and it proved to be a good decision.
 

This video shows the full match highlights of the Wimbledon 2008 Finals.

Blog Post #3

I believe that one of the best things about my book is my ability to connect with the author. I can connect with the author because I can understand what he needs to go through every point in every one of his matches. The pre-preparation, the preparation, the playing, the afterthought, and the revision. I see this in myself as well as Rafael Nadal because he explains each one of these aspects carefully. The pre-preparation talks of how he prepares for the preparing. How Nadal brainstorms about how he may approach the problem of his opponent. He then moves on to the preparation, talking about how he will carry out the ideas. This portion is also meant to become mentally tough right before the match. After this, he begins to walk on to the main part, the playing. This is where ideas may or may not change. He may change the way he plays, or he may not. It all depends on how he plays that day as well as how well his opponent plays. After the match, there is always the afterthought process, analyzing the mistakes and positives of his game, regardless of whether he won or lost. He then goes on to try and fix these problems in the revision. This is where he thinks of new ideas of how he can improve. The cycle repeats again. I do similar things right before a match myself. It shows of how I can connect to Rafa to understand the book better.
This article gives a good summarization of the book.

Blog Post #2

In my book, Rafa, I believe the most important line was, "Those were the numbers anyway. That was the logic." This line is extremely important in my eyes because it allows the plot to keep moving forward. It allows Nadal to keep trudging forward, even if he is not the favorite of the match. In the game of tennis, it is imperative you keep your confidence up. Without this, you will lose the match. The line perfectly shows this situation.

I believe this book can be quite perfectly connected to another book. The book Open is an autobiography by Andre Agassi, a former world number one tennis player. Agassi and Nadal go through many of the same difficulties. For example, both had extremely tennis passionate relatives, who really drove them towards who they were in their golden ages. Both of these relatives, Uncle Toni for Nadal and Agassi's father for Agassi, not only worked them hard, but abused them mentally. Uncle Toni would play twenty points with Nadal. He would then allow Nadal to win nineteen of those points and then come back to always beat him, 20 to 19. Agassi's father would not stop yelling at Andre until he hit the ball as hard as his father had wanted him to hit it. Both of these books gave a compelling story about how life was for a tennis player.

I can usually always understand what Rafael Nadal is attempting to explain. This is done because I also play the game of tennis. I can feel what Nadal is going through every moment of his book. When Nadal explains the loneliness of tennis on the court, I fully understand him. Nadal believes that no matter how lonely you are on the court, winning the match will always make up for it. I comprehend what he tries to say here. I can imagine every single point he plays with his rivals. I constantly make connections on how some things, people push me. But on others, I do things on my own. Nadal expresses the same feelings in his autobiography.

This can also be seen in the world perspective. It shows that hard work pays off. Nadal has played countless matches where he was not the favorite, and was also down two sets to none. From these dire situations, Nadal has still come out on top and won. Likewise, people in the lower class who believe in the American Dream can still come out on top through hard work. Both of these two situations are connected because they started from a low class, but through hard work, slowly came up to the middle class, and finally came back to win or be in the highest class. The book shows this through Nadal's perspective very well. 

The best thing about my book is that Nadal explains the game of tennis through his own perspective, which makes the book much more interesting. He not only talks of his tennis life, but his own social problems and free time. He shares his beliefs with the reader for much of the time. This book is really appealing to me because I play tennis as well. This way, I can understand the way Nadal talks of tennis. I can also share the same experiences as him. For example, winning by much and happening to lose. The best thing is that I am able to understand Nadal's thoughts well enough for me to imagine what he is feeling.

From looking through Nadal's eyes, who is your favorite tennis player?