wht an awesome news ..The Morning is really good !! :D :D

tomnjerry, the next morning you may find the morning not so good and disappear again:D:D

yup u r right luckystar... i will disappear but i wnt miss single opportunity to say GM again !!! :D

tomnjerry2... you must live quite a sad and lonely life if this news has made your morning really good

anyways... i didn't watch the match. kinda glad about that now. the score does at least look quite close so maybe a couple of points going the other way would have made all the difference. but if i remember rightly, wasn't dodig the only guy to take a set off nole at this years australian open? he's a good player. so i'd say whilst perhaps the round that rafa lost in was a huge surprise, the player he lost to... maybe less so

Another big server who Rafa will fear facing in the future. Reminded me a little of the match with the other Ivan from Croatia at IW last year.

Ivan just got better as the match wore on ... Rafa played well but not with his usual competitive force. Kind of sad to see both Rafa and Andy out so early.

Lack of match toughness + underdog in the `zone` = Tennis Upset....
At least Puss n Boots made a better show of it than M Bear did.

Dodig is the only player other than Djokovic to beat Rafa this year, so that is quite an achievement. It seems like it was just a few points in it. As for Murray, well, this is something you have to expect from him now and again.

Davydenko,David Ferrer,Tsonga,Djokovic and now Dodig beat Rafa this year.

I don't think Rafa will fear both Ivan, he had beaten both of them on clay this year, and had beaten Ivan Ljuby on hard courts in the past. I don't think Rafa fear anyone now other than Nole, not even Davy now, given how Davy is struggling on all courts these days and Rafa has a 3-0 H2H on clay against Davy. I'm looking forward to future meetings between Rafa and Davy on the hard courts so that Rafa can at least even the scores.

one thing I noticed about Rafa yesterday was that he was playing more aggressive than usual...he had 33 UEs but also more than 50 winners if I remember correctly...I think Rafa is trying to reorganize himself for the upcoming fast courts and he tried something new...it was not meant to be, this is his first match after the holidays, he was a little rusty and he had no luck while Dodig was playing well and has been helped by Fortuna...I don't think this loss should be considered as disaster, at least Rafa gets some rest if he is sick...I don't know about Cincy, Rafa does not like the court there, but the match practice is what he needs...and to try to look on the bright side: next year, Rafa will have less points to defend...:)

good loss for Nadal. Personally I thought he was pretty good and Dodig was just amazing. Granted Nadal should NEVER blow those kinds of leads - that was awful - but as a whole he was OK. And now he will be well-rested for the USO even if goes deep in Cincy.

Agree with Ricky......but those service game drops are unforgivable, I bet he is still embarrassed about that.........hasn't posted his usual chirpy Facebook messages yet by the looks of it!

RickyDimon You cannot be serious? I agree with the part that it should not make a differance for him. The loss was a somewhat narrow one. We all could easiley see him winning the next time around.
But he should not be a happy camper with that loss.
If well rested is his objective he should have started playing Cincy and take a zero pointer and move on. Owh that is just what he got ;-)

To all the Nadalettes ... Keep faith and don't let this loss get to you. I'ved noticed that youre believe and faith in the Raffaan is a little fragile. You should try to stay positive. He has never been the dominator on the HC exp. end ofseason. Those are the fastest HC there are. He has never been the dominator there. Unlike ofcourse the Clay season.

Be strong keep faith.

O no it is no zero points he still gets 45 points from the buy?If that is correct top players life is a little less daunting.

Sienna, it's zero points for the players with a bye if they lose their first match.

I might end up watching the girls; with my guy out it hurts me to watch the others.

of course he isn't happy he lost. Nor should he be. Doesn't mean it's a crisis.

Rafa says:

"He played very well, very aggressive. He didn't feel the pressure in the important moments. And at the end of the match, probably I was a little bit unlucky today," said Nadal.

"I felt I played enough well to win that match. But that's tennis. The only thing I can do is congratulate the opponent and keep working for Cincinnati."

Then I actually agree with you. But the tendency on this site (the Nadalettes) is somewhat destructive.
It's mental, it's physical , he is sick or injured? Just a narrow loss nothing more nothing less. He has never been as dominant on HC as to clay nor will he ever be.
He did well of course to win both HC slams allready but he will not be winning HC slams every year.

Nice artice on where he stands at the moment.

http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2011/08/the-new-normal.html

Sha nkcity?? nice... hope we won't be seeing that for a while.
Keep the faith Nadanettes

Nadaline you must try to watch atleast Djokovic. He is really in a special place with his game. He is putting tennis on a new level this year. I do not see him come down.
The leve; he has he can do it by playong within himself that is so dangerous. He looks in total controle evenduring a change over.
But Iam sure my guy can take him on! He just has to get himself in that position without to much trouble. Fed can savethe year end for Rafa.... Keep the faith.

Again a nice read, little far fetched if you asked me...
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2011-08-11/7665.php

but still we have to keep upwith the news