Two down, three to go ! Vamos, Rafa !!!

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Rafa played very well today. I was worried about big hitters on the hard courts. The commenators mentioned about Anderson should attack Rafa onthe forehand side n true enough he started to do so mid way in the second set n broke Rafa's serve. The match became more competitive after that. Rafa has to be careful to protect his forehand corner, going forward. I believe the top players like Murray, Nalby, Nole and Berdych will all look to attack's forehand side of the court if they face him.

Provided Nadal hits deep and moves well and plays on the baseline, all players will find it hard to penetrate him on either side.
To win against Nadal in his mood and his gradual improvement in form, players will have to red line their games and pull it off.
The only person I can see posing Rafa a problem is not Federer but Nalbadian, but then again, if he is off, which he soon will be, after 11 remarkable straight wins.

I was a little bit worried about Anderson, but I never thought he would beat Rafa just that Rafa would have to work hard to win; whilst it's great to win easy, there is some benefit to having to earn a win, because you improve as a player.

VAMOS!

As luckystar mentioned, one of the best ways to beat Nadal is to open him up on his forehand side. That's bcoz Nadal moves slower to his right and leaves more space open on that wing, and so players like Djokovic, Davydenko, Nalbandian, Delpo etc with strong cross court backhands have had good success against him. I think Anderson latched on that tactic a little late, but still it was an impressive performance by the South African. Despite playing a poor 1st set, he fought hard in the 2nd set, unlike another player (cough* llodra *cough).

I thought Rafa played better in this match than he did against Wawrinka. I am still worried about the backhand. I don't like his defensive play from that wing . Especially the down the line backhand moonballs that he feeds his opponents (in order to get back in the point and line up a forehand). Too much running around his backhand leaves the forehand side open for any decent hardcourt player to exploit. Nadal has to throw caution to the wind and start swinging freely with his bh, if he wants to make an impact on the fall hardcourt season. It's a far cry from what it was when it won him the Australian Open.

I was quite pleased with Rafa's game in his second match. The serve was so much better, he was finally connecting with his forehand and that backhand is starting to connect. That is the shot that he simply must have on hardcourt. I thought he was much more focused and intense. The first set was really high quality from Rafa, but in that second set he gave back the break of serve and let Anderson back in the match. I guess Rafa likes playing tiebreaks. He isn't there yet, but I like to see improvement in each match. That's my Rafa! He is working through some rust from the long layoff, but I am confident that he will get into great form.

What I really liked is that Rafa really turned on the heat and got aggressive and went for that early break in the second set. He started pounding those groundstrokes very deep and blasted Anderson back every time. He took control and command. That's nice to see. He also did it in that second tiebreak. It was like he said to himself - finally, I am done with this guy. He is going down!

The other thing that I noticed is how beautifully Rafa is moving on court. Those knees must be feeling just fine, because I haven't seen him move like this on hard court in a long time! I love his aggressive play and think he is getting better in every match.

I try not to look too far ahead, but I am aware of Nalby. If Rafa does meet Nalby, that will be a tough match. All I can hope is that Rafa brings his "A" game against this guy. I don't want to have to rely on hoping for Nalby to get tired.