2 Spanish left handed sword fighters

Rafa could have his hands full with Feliciano Lopez, who doesn't mind staying out two or three weeks to win a match if necessary. His five set win over John Isner was full of merit, but Rafa has shown himself to be one of the two or three favorites to win the tournament, irrespective of anything.

Much of the first stanza of the match had the players carefully watching for what the other's tactics might be, and second guessing led to a number of points decided by errors. Only a few genuine winners were shot. Nadal kept more balls in court than Lopez and so broke serve, the single occurrence of the first set. He began to reduce his unforced clangers, and while not dominating Lopez, was able to draw his countryman into an increased rate of mistake.

Both were attacking each others forehand in rallies, an interesting concept since that shot is a major weapon for them. Nadal won the set 6-4 and traditionally does not lose from there.

Set two and Nadal broke again, endorsed the action by holding serve, and had Lopez on the back foot straight away. Lopez gained some ray of hope when he switched on a remote power source and won three consecutive games including a break of Rafa's serve. The ray of hope was extinguished though when the electricity supplier disconnected the account due to late payment.
Nadal took advantage of Lopez being left in the dark, and piled on some of his finest tennis to win four of the next five games, taking the second set in the process.

Two sets up, Rafa, publicly feigning a friendship with his fellow Spaniard, showed his true sentiment towards Lopez by cutting him off at the knees in the premiere game of set three. Maybe this is what Feliciano needed. Now a few centimetres shorter he had an improved height to weight ratio and traversed the court more efficiently, having break chances on the next Nadal serve before holding his own comfortably to trail 1-2.

Nadal soon adapted to his opponent's adapted style, and hitting rather freely, held for 4-2 before summoning all his forces - good and evil - to eradicate any lingering hopes of a comeback from Lopez. Rafa stole Feliciano's final serve and pocketed it along with his own racing away from pursuing law enforcement officers into the safety of the quarter finals.