Russian Ria news agency reports that Rafael Nadal will be a guest of honor at the gala opening of a Millionaire Fair in Moscow from Nov. 27 to 30.

He is invited by Vitaeibiza Homes, a company specializing in green homes. The company will also be building a luxury villa for Nadal on the southern island of the Balearic archipelago.

Why is Rafa mingling with millionaires? Because he IS a millionaire. He made $6,7 million this year, and that is only in career money. I wonder how much he is making for that appearance. Or maybe he is getting a nice discount on his house?

Sports Illustrated this week features Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on its cover, calling their five-set Wimbledon final is “the greatest tennis match ever played,” and “a four-hour, 48-minute infomercial for everything right and virtuous about tennis….”

Pacific Life Open photos.

Russian sports site Russia Today has conducted an exclusive interview with Rafael Nadal. World No 2 speaks about his future plans, breaking Bjorn Borg’s record and favorite female tennis players. (OK, I’ll save you time on this one. He likes Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin–that is the way they play:-)

The interview in Russian is here. The Google-translated English version is here.

David Nalbandian’s brilliant run continues. Today he crushed local favorite Richard Gasquet in just over an hour. After the match Gasquet himself admitted that Nalbandian is playing better than Roger Federer at the moment, and he had never played such a strong opponent before. Tomorrow Nalbandian faces Rafael Nadal in the final of the Paris Masters. David is going for a second straight Masters title after winning in Madrid last month, where he dominated Nadal 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. It will be a great and entertaining match. I am just thrilled to see Nalbandian back in the spotlight with his smart and interesting game.

Media and tennis blogosphere are a buzz about Nalbandian’s resurgence. Here are some excerpts from popular tennis blogs:

Peter Bodo’s Tennis World:

“David Nalbandian is not in the running for a place in Shanghai, but he is sizzzzzling. So he’s next best thing to king - he’s a potential kingmaker. Enjoy the tennis, everyone!”

Read more »

David Nalbandian, former No 3 and currently ranked No. 25, crushed second seed Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters. The match was over in just 1 hour and 33 minutes. While most of the media coverage explains Nadal’s loss as a result of post-Murray-match-fatigue-syndrome, I don’t understand why Nalbandian is always so underestimated. When he is in the zone he can beat anyone on any surface, even Roger Federer. He did beat Federer to win the Masters Cup in 2005 - a fact which the commentator on Tennis Channel chose to ignore by saying “this was David’s greatest win in his career.” ?????
When he beat Federer in a five-set thriller in the Master’s Cup final in 2005, everybody was talking about Federer’s post injury condition. David has been a consistent top ten player for several years though he is having a lousy season this year. If you ask me he is one of the talented players who didn’t win a Grand Slam, and who is consistently being ignored by media (thanks to his awful press conference skills:-)

The question is which David is going to show up at tomorrow’s match with Novak Djokovic.

(Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Why Rafa is doing it? Many fans have wondered about it.

Here is Nadal’s answer published in a recent interview with Time magazine.

Question to Rafael Nadal

“Why wear the Capri pants that you have to constantly pull out of your rear? Why not shorts? —Sara Norm, Chicago

[Laughs.] It’s not the fault of the clothes. It’s a habit that I picked up when I was competing when I was young. I am trying to break the habit, but it’s not easy.”

Here is Novak Djokovic’s impersonation of Nadal and Maria Sharapova which he, by the way, repeated yesterday after beating Carlos Moya at U.S. Open.