Last up on Hisense Arena for day one was number 2 seed and winner of about the only thing Novak Djokovic didn't parcel up last year - the French Open. Oh yes an opponent was chosen for Rafa upon which the Spanish superstar could practice his myriad of tricks and the unlucky sap was Alex Kuznetsova representing the USA.
As per script the opening serve was an American failure, and Rafa continued the pain by holding serve and giving us a hint of some of the whipping forehands that would litter the court as the mismatch unfolded. Despite the aura of Rafa, and the non appearance of any shoulder discomfort, Alex did pretty well for the remainder of set one. The quality of his passing shots surprised me, more relevantly surprised Nadal, and the final margin came to be that single initial break of serve. 6-4 but nothing to jump over the moon about for Nadal.
The second set set the scene for mass destruction of Kuznetsov, which an angry Rafa had planned to occur much earlier. He continued to seethe when the complete domination of the set still relinquished a game to the American. I ran out of any original superlatives for Nadal in 2010, and last year I had to use them all on Novak Djokovic. It seems time right to apply them to Rafa once more.
I admit being seduced by the end of year form and results of a certain Mr Federer, and indeed pencilled him for the final this year, but to assume that Rafa would lose a semi to Roger is to flirt with any tipping form I may have pretended to possess. As Rafa continued to cruise in the third set and swiftly mark an end to the singles campaign for Alex Kuznetsov, the taking for granted of what Nadal does to tennis balls had to be set aside for a moment in order to once again appreciate the talent of the still young star.
As an opening round statement this straight sets destruction of a pretty fair player sets a high standard and Novak, Roger and anyone else who harbours thoughts of grandeur in Melboune in 2012 must take full note. Nadal 6-4 6-1 6-1
No comments:
Post a Comment