The King of Clay aims to become the “super King of Clay”. It is now very clear that Rafa will play more and more tournaments on clay. It won’t matter if they are 250ATPs.
This decision looks wise for many reasons. First, clay courts are much less taxing on knees. Second, minor tournaments are eager to play the huge bucks to superstars to attract more audience (and it seems to make sense from a financial point of view). Third, by playing more tournaments on clay Rafa will be even more prepared to win another couple of hundreds Master 1000 in Montecarlo, Rome, Madrid and some more Roland Garros. Finally, Rafa can (even more) establish himself as the supreme clay court legend.
Vina del Mar – VTR Open
There were some rumours around that they were courting Rafa by offering him 1.2$ millions. Finally Rafa confirmed on Facebook and twitter he will participate to the tournament.
“I would like to say that I have many fans in the Andean country, and I can finally go be with them and play in my first tournament after the injury that has kept me away for so long,”
The tournament will start the 4th of February and the 2012 Champion was Rafa’s dear friend Pico Monaco that defeated Berloq in the final 6-3 6-7 (1) 6-1.
3 tournaments in February
Rafa’s comeback will be quite busy in February. The King of Clay will play the 4th in Chile, the 11th in Brazil and the 25th of February. We hope it is not too much…
Something about last year’s Vina del Mar tournament
Some action from the court side
