i must admit that i am a person with a rather critical eye, i rarely see any people, male or female, that i find good-looking or beautiful. so at the times that i DO think someone approaching perfection in outward appearances, i find it a big enough event to post on the ol' blog.

so who is this extraordinary being i speak of, the one so well-endowed in the looks department?

he is none other than........ RAFAEL NADAL.

i've already established that he is my current fave tennis player, ever since he appeared many seasons ago and overthrew federer in one of the early matches of his inspiring career.

and i've probably already mentioned in passing that i found his looks exotic and attractive.

but when i watched his match against murray in abu dhabi (unfortunately he lost to that clown), i was once again bowled over by his near-perfection. his is a rare blend of fine features AND great body, extremely totally overwhelmingly hard to find in the modern world or any world at any point in history in fact.

with the fear of sounding tremendously superficial and overly indulgent, i shall include a description of nadal, which does not capture the extent of his great looks at all.

nadal has wavy tousled locks, very dashingly held back with that warrior headband of his. and he has fantastically deep-set eyes, squinty but not too much so, which gives him that Clint Eastwood charisma. it goes with his image as the Spanish conquistador, dangerous, lethal and fierce. then we move down to that subtle trace of a stubble around his chin, perfect in its near-absence because noone likes a scruffy looking fella or a santa claus lookalike with scraps of dinner entrapped in a full-grown bush underneath. and of course there's the body, artistically sculpted almost. killingly proportionate, with long legs but not so that he looks like a newborn giraffe. most guys have long torsos unfortunately, but nadal's is an amazing proportion that only few other guys like Rain and Jerry Yan have. nadal also has the right muscle bulk, which is truly hard to find. many guys are either too scrawny or overdo the gym training and protein shake-drinking. his bulk is even nicer than cristiano ronaldo's, who's just a tiny bit too lean. nadal has AMAZING biceps plus triceps, and sinewy forearms and lower legs. and on the few occasions he lifts up his shirt to wipe away the sweat off his forehead, everyone in the tennis-watching arena holds their breath when they catch sight of the abs of course. well actually the last time i saw his abs they weren't great six packs but still very defined so i shall conclude, in my absolutely biased perspective, that he has since then trained hard and improved his abdominal muscles. he has the perfect broadness of shoulder, not too broad like a swimmer's, which can taper drastically to a tiny waist that gives a literally "V" torso that's a bit repulsive (namely Phelps). nadal's neck muscles are defined too, and his thighs, from the look of his fitted berms/capris, look suitably slim and proportioned for his calves and hips. and he has a great skin colour, tanned which matches his red indian looks perfectly, unlike some tanned westerners who look burnt. and from a particular image of him walking back to the base line from the net, i could tell with my eleventh sense that he has great back muscles too, an area most people forget to work on when in the gym. and to add to the overall effect, there's his predatory glares and glances, insanely extreme grip on the racket that gives him a aesthetically superior swing, athletic efficient effortless movements on court that make him look super duper strong and fit, and an iron strength of mind that has turned the tide in many a set that he was down.