Juan Jose Mateo wrote an article in El País titled “New York in three weeks” about Rafael Nadals’s preparation in Mallorca this summer. It reiterates what we mostly know about Rafa’s summer and his training regimen, but with a little more depth than what we’ve seen so far.

There are some interesting comments about Rafa from Serbian tennis player Nenad Zimonjic who practiced with Rafa in Mallorca:

“I’ve known Rafa for a long time and we’ve spent years talking about doing this. We practiced together about seven times, but in between there were sometimes periods of two or three days of rest for his knee. Sometimes he moved more, sometimes less, depending on how he felt, but he always pushed himself to do the most he possibly could each day.”

“It was amazing. It’s not easy to practice with him. Not many people can keep up with his rhythm, his level, his intensity, his ball speed and his consistency. I was able to see that I’m still in good form!”

“In this sense, he’s a bit different from Djokovic in intensity, though they both have concentration and the ambition to improve each segment of their game in common. If Rafa reminds me of anyone practicing, it’s Andre Agassi.”

Zimonjic, along with his doubles partner Julien Benneteau, won the Citi Open doubles final in Washington D.C. on Sunday Aug. 4. Perhaps a sign of things to come for Rafa as well? Here’s hoping that all the hard work really pays off for our champion! Go Rafa!