Thx Cheryl for these lines,
Good win, still I would have liked Rafa to end the points a bit sooner - sometimes he enjoys wearing down his opponents heedles of how much energy is needed.. especially in the first set. True enough Mina had to go for his winners in the opening set but still it's a bit frustrating to see how many balls Rafa put close to the service box, which gives his opponent an open court.... next match will be better, I hope (I don't care much about the score as far as he wins.. I'm referring to shorter rallies.. the first set 6-2 took almost an hour!)
It's good to see that he didn't flinch, as usual, with the French crowd nor with the choice of court - Verdasco should learn a lesson or two from Rafa , hehe

Rafa could've played a little better ... but more fun for the French crowd with Mina winning some points.
Cheryl, I can't believe you are letting Ricky get away with his expert pick comments :) ... perhaps you are just taking the high road.

I hope to see the match on replay. I will check on espn360 to see if they have it yet. I am hearing that Rafa played some decent tennis, not his best, but good enough to get a routine win against this young kid. I don't expect Rafa to be playing his best tennis in his first match. He has always been kind of a slow starter in grand slams, getting the feel of the court conditions and just kind of finding his rhythm. This young man played well and gave Rafa a nice first round test, but there was no way Rafa would be seriously challenged. It's an easy win, good for Rafa's knees and allowing him to test his strokes. Now it's on to the second round. Rafa should play better and better with each match.

You always want to peak in the second week of the tournament. That's when you want to be playing your best. The first rounds can be tricky, with lesser ranked or unranked players who have nothing to lose. Rafa needs to play well enough to get through, but trying to conserve energy and save his best for the critical second week. This was a good start to what should be a great tournament for Rafa. He is coming into RG well rested, having won the three Masters clay court tournaments, brimming with confidence. That's all we can ask.

i didn't watch but happy with the scoreline ;)

I saw the match completely and I thought Rafa played terrible. His forehand up the line was not working at all. Also way too many unforced errors. He faced break points in all his service games in the 1st set and also some more thereafter. Not good for a 1st round battle even of you are trying to play yourself into form.

Checked Rafa posting on facebook - "Happy for the win, it's always important to win, but I played terrible!!!"

He also said in his post match interview that he was a bit nervous and needs to calm down. Hope he does that and plays better in the 2nd round.

rafa says he likes to play in the sun......conditions were a lot heavier yesterday,he didnt have a lot of control over his shots!

atul1985-
Rafa also said in an interview, that the 4 times that he has won RG that he always played terrible in the first match.

So hopefully all is going as per the script...:)

Thanks isabeau77

Thats reassuring!!

Crikey you lot, I thought Rafa looked better than ever......and the BBC commentators agreed with me!

Come on, people, let's not overanalyze a first round match, for heaven's sake! Did anyone here honestly expect Rafa to come out guns blazing in this match? I know that Rafa is a perfectionist about his tennis and always has the highest expectations, but let's try to keep it real! There is a lot of tennis yet to be played. I don't want to see Rafa push himself more than he has to in these early rounds.

From what I am hearing, this young man acquitted himself quite well. He didn't allow himself to be a pushover for Rafa and that's all to the good. Rafa needs to settle down, relax and get his legs under him. He must have mixed feelings coming back to this tournament after that horrendous experience last year. He also knows that the Parisian crowd doesn't exactly embrace him.

Some here seem to have forgotten that Rafa is a slow starter in slams. I always say a win is a win is a win. Getting through these early rounds, where you are playing unranked players who have nothing to lose, can be treacherous. Let's just be thankful that Rafa had a pretty uneventful first match, winning easily in straight sets.

One thing I have always tried very hard to do, is NOT read too much into Rafa's early round matches in slam tournaments. He should have a good test against this guy Zeballos and we may get a better idea of where his game is at right now, but I think it's kind of absurd to get into a tizzy over this match.

The fact of the matter is this kid Mina was playing very well with a strategy that upset Nadal's rythm. The french kid has it in him to play the very best and in time with more experience is sure to become a very good player. Rarely Nadal faces a break point in three consecutive service games and that happened because of the intensity shown by Mina. Nadal made uncharectirstic, unnadal errors at several points in the match and he admitted that he was a bit nervous. Most likely Nadal did not expect a 19 year old qualifier- an unknown rank outsider to play with such intensity. The result though does not show the contest that he won.

I think there are a lot of promising young players as always but not many come through to become greats. We have to give this Mina time to grow up and see what will become of him. Do remember Monfils was also a promising junior when he won Junior Wimbledon, RG and AO, in the same year when Murray won the junior USO. Monfils is still struggling to get to the top ten at age 23 now.

To be a great player, one has to be disciplined, hardworking, motivated and passionate about the game, and he must have a good support team to take care of his every need. Seems like I'm talking about Rafa here!! It goes to show how good Rafa is, even at age 17, he is fearless when facing the no.1 player and most impressively, scores a win over the no.1 player that so far, none of the other young promising players were/are able to do. More important of course is that Rafa has realized his potential and becomes a great player now.

Hi Luckystar,

Wow! ' Rafa has realized his potential and becomes a great player now' - he is already a great player. What the world awaits his game to mature/improve further whic I am sure he will for the next five years at least. This contest with Roger is not over, it has actually begun with his recovery as well as the hunger in both players.

Correction - I don't mean Rafa is only great now! He is already a great!

I also remember Murray did beat Fed in 2006 Cincy, at age 19. That was their second meeting and Fed was the no. 1 player then.

yep he did that in 2 sets...very strange match i remember...1st set was marked by brk of serve after brk of serve !!

anyway , rafans , out man is due to take philipe chatrier tomorrow...he will be playing the last (4th) match of the day on it...and no rain interruptions tomorrow :D