ATM Sweeting is putting a beating on Monaco. 6-1 in the first set.

^^^ weird day. American players beating people they're not supposed to beat.

Nadal barely worked up a sweat.

Pico up 3-0 in the second.

cheryl,

Yes, weird is an apt description for a day in which Ferrer lost to Ivo, Murray lost to Young, and Baggy lost to I don't remember who!

Rafa's match was little more than a practice sesson and probably not as intense as I have heard his practices tend to be. I will take it because Rafa needed a chance to get the feel of the court and his shots. I will take it!

What a day!

Young Americans are hot tonight. Ryan plays himself into a match with Rafa.

Let's hear it for the Americans. Lord knows they get bashed to the hilt, so this is something positive for the American tennis fans. GO USA!!! My only regret is that Young beat Murray -- too bad.

Good start Rafa, just take it one match at a time.


Vamos

ferrer and murray OUT....rafa now should make the finals atleast

Youngster kept his head; apparently AndyMur didn't hold onto his.

That Sweeting scoreline looked like a sine curve. If he plays like that again, his match with Rafa should be interesting.

Vrael, should he go that far, I'm just hoping Rafa stays alert during semis this time. Ljuby played really well to take him last year, but at the same time I think Rafa took a little too long to warm up b/c he brought his "five-set" head to a three-set match.

That said, his strokes looked great today.

vrael,

I am cautiously optimistic, but still taking nothing for granted, just the way Rafa does! He won't meet a seeded player until at least the quarterfinals, I believe. However, some of these lesser players have no pressure on them and nothing to lose, so he will need to just stay focused and that should be enough.

mara002,

We have to remember that this is a much different Rafa than the one who faced Ljuby in the semis last year. That Rafa had not won a title in ten months and didn't have that confidence that gives him a special edge. This Rafa is coming off a historic year of great success with three straight slam wins. He had some bad luck getting sick so close to the start of the AO, but now he seems to be well and the leg is fine.

This Rafa will not fold when the match is on the line. Watching Rafa's match, I sensed that he was focused, concentrating and getting the feel of the court and his groundstrokes. He is going for that crosscourt backhand and down the line backhand and that's a sign that he is feeling confident.

Am I correct in saying that he met Sweeting for the first time in the early rounds at the AO? I seem to remember that he played him. One thing is for sure, Rafa is NOT Monaco. I don't mind a bit of a challenge. This first match was good for him to get his feet under him, but it also made it hard to get into a rhythm with an opponent that was clearly outclassed and unable to return many of his shots.

I think Rafa looked to be in very good form today and am so happy to see him back playing once more!

mara002 and NNY.....rafa is looking a bit more confident than he was last year coming into indian wells in my opinion.....last year after a dissapointing OZ,there were some doubts in his mind....some demons left....which he conquered and vanquished so beautifuly during the clay season...clay slam...wimby...USO.....won it all.....i feel that he is a lot more assured and calm now...because he knows he can make a comeback after injury and return to top level again.....win those biggies again.....last year was amazing for his CONFIDENCE....and he will surely carry on improving and building on that confidence im sure!!!

he will play with "colm" and positive "acktitude"(got to love rafa's english :D)....and win indian wells this year...that is how i truly feel

vrael,

I love your actitude! Yes, I do love Rafa's english! This time Rafa had a very minor injury to his left hamstring, but it wasn't the knees. Last year he had yet another knee injury when he had to retire against Murray in the quarterfinals, but fortunately it wasn't serious. It gave him some down time and he came back at IW and was playing very good tennis, but that certain something that sets him apart, was missing. Confidence and mental toughness are such an important part of Rafa's game. It's what makes him such a great champion. He has that this year. I could see it on his face.

I hope that you are right about how you feel. I almost don't want to say it out loud. I will just take it one match at a time, just like Rafa!

NNY

haha...dont say it loud if you believe it might jinx him...:)

some very interesting matches today....stan vs davydenko....would be a cracker

Rafans, from what I saw today....2011 will be a good year!! Our boy has really matured. There was a self-assured-ness about his game today.. a certain "colm" as vrael says, LOL.

Even if he does not win IW, I am happy with what I saw today. I think 2011 will see the birth of a new rivalry, Rafa-Nole and my guy will come out on top!

Oh, and by the way........he is growing more and more handsome with age.....

Where is Rafa's mascot - ATR!!!

Yep, very happy with Rafa's game at the moment. He has improved so much in every aspect of his game. I see him hitting his backhand down the line shot today and also his cross court back hand. He's playing with so much authority nowadays. Also his court positioning is good on the hard court, its amazing how well he is playing these days.

I was watching dvds of his past matches, from 2006 right up to 2008 Monte Carlo, Rome and RG. I can see the improvement in his game year after year, from 2006 to 2008. Back then in 2006-2007, he was such a 'noisy' player, every shot was accompanied by a loud 'ah..'. Frankly, if you're not his fan, you'll find him rather
irritating and intimidating. Also he was so 'bulky' back then and looked fearsome on the court. Though he was already the king of clay since 2006, back then he was still playing his attrition style of clay court game. In his semifinal match against Davy in Rome 2007, he was standing so far behind the baseline, allowing Davy to boss him around and he ended up doing all the running. It was in 2008 that we saw his mastering of the clay court game, esp at RG that year. He was blowing everyone off the clay court at RG that year. He was at his athletic best, at the height of his physical power and had incredible footwork on clay. However, in terms of shot making abilities and varieties, I think he was better in 2010 than in 2008, though his physical power and his speed might have gone down a bit in 2010. (Its a pity he had his knee injury in 2009, if not we might be able to see him at his very best on clay in 2009, in terms of shot making and physical power).

I'm really pleased with his game now and yes I agree as he grows older, he looks better and better, more handsome, less intimidating, slimmer but still comes with good muscles. And yes, he is really blessed with a beautiful body and good skin, he has to thank his parents for giving him all his assets.

As Rafa stated hmself in a post match interview, it's hard to really analyse anything after this win. The main positive probably being that it just allowed him to ease his way back into the swing of thjings. Yes of course he'll need more competitive sets in later rounds but in terms of just coming back from injury, it was probably the ideal start. I actually think now with Ferrer & Murray out (which I still can't believe) he may now get to the final.

lol Luckystar. It was amusing the read the second paragraph of your post.

Anyway, it's hard to take anything from Nadal's first match other than the fact that he was hitting his backhand well and trying to go more for his second serve (he made a few double faults, and there were at least a couple that were not called). But that's good, Nadal needs to pump up the mph's on his second serve so that it's less vulnerable to big hitters.

As Luckystar said, Nadal has improved each and every facet of his hardcourt game over the years. He hits his forehand with more authority, he drives his backhand on the up as opposed to waiting for the ball. Perhaps the most significant is the court positioning. Nadal is always trying to move up on the court and switch to offense from defense. This is a far cry from the Rafa of 2006/2007 (or even 2008) on hardcourts.

Nadal's game now transcends surfaces. Since he improved his serve and become more offensive (overall) the gulf between his performance on faster and slower courts has narrowed down.

Plus on slow courts he retreats back, playing more defense, which makes him less effective overall. On grass and fast hardcourts, he has no option but to be more offensive and I rather like watching him on the faster surfaces for that reason (especially on grass where his footwork and tactics are just unbelievable).

The one true weakness of Rafa's game (relatively speaking at his level) is his Return of serve - especially on the forehand. Because of his large follow-through and back-swing, he does have a tendency to stand back to give himself time. Many times, though, he put the return short (I hate it when on a ROS in the deuce court, he runs around the backhand to take a forehand, only to hit the return shot and expose the open court) . Because of lack of depth on the ROS, Nadal has to work harder and play more defense to get back in the pt. He's also caught hacking many times with the grip change -and ends up mis-hitting many returns. I don't think anyone of the top players (Fed, Muzz, Nole) has such a large grip change as Nadal does.

So yeah, his ROS is vulnerable to a big server on a fastcourt, and he allows his opponent several serve-winners and aces. Now if he had a ROS like Novak, Nada would have been well and truly unbeatable on any surface :)

Still despite all this, Nadal is still among the top players when it comes to return statistics. Now given that most players get a lot of cheap pts against Nadal on serve (see Fed/Murray serve stats in WTF 2010 against Nadal for ex) , it just goes to show how good Rafa's ground game is. If he manages to get the pt back in neutral position after a ROS, he almost never loses it..

@Imjimmy

Good point on Rafa's running around his backhand to hit the forehand. It does leave him exposed and many times he does it from difficult positions, making it look very awkward, which is most of the reason why it ends up landing short.

Although the return of serve can be a big weakness, it is negated by his retreiving abilities. It gives him a psychological edge when having run almost the whole length of the court he still manages to produce a winner or a passing shot which forces an error.

For me the biggest weakness is still the serve. Yes he can generate more power now but not enough consistently to get him free points on a regular basis. Almost no matter which opponent he always has to battle hard to retain serve. At times it helps as it plays him more into form, but it a tight contest with tiebreaks involved, is where it hurts him the most.

I feel that a Nadal serving 15-20 aces or unreturnables per match, would truly be unbeatable on any surface.

lebsta2,

I would like to respectfully disagree with your last comment. I don't think it's necessasry for Rafa to serve 15-20 aces or unreturnables per match. We saw at last year's USO how his new more powerful serve gave him more of an advantage on the fast courts in that tournament.

There was a point when Rafa was serving to win the third set against Nole. He fell behind 15-30, if I remember correctly. Then he proceeded to blast four huge serves in a row, all unreturnable. Nole threw up his hands in frustration. That's where the big serve helps him. I also don't think Rafa needs to change who he is as a tennis player. His game has won him nine grand slams, including the career slam. I do think he needed a bigger serve to be more competitive on the hard courts. Now he has that weapon. I don't see him having to be an ace machine. It's not who he is. H

Rafa is already unbeatable on clay. You don't need a huge serve on that surface. It's movement and powerful groundstrokes that make the difference. Grass is similar in the sense that great movement provides an advantage.

Rafa was aware enough to realize that he needed a more powerful serve for hard courts. However, he also made a few other adjustments to his game. He now plays more aggressively, moving into the court, stands closer to the baseline to receive serve, has a superior net game and that serve. He is no longer the player who used to try to outhit players from the baseline. He realized that this wouldn't work against guys like Delpo, Sod, Berdych, etc. He is now willing to move into the court to close out points more quickly. He has even showed some serve and volleying at times.

I am pleased with the changes that Rafa has made and feel that he has given himself the best chance to be strong on all surfaces.