Fight bravely today, Rafa!
Vamos!

vamos rafa. no tough matches in early stages please

Vamooooooooooooossssssssssss!

Wow. Daniel is...not faring well, is he?

Daniel has called the trainer.

Daniel has a career hard court record of 1-22. Is this a practical joke?

Rafa is beating himself up with his serve, he needs to work on it before he faces serious competition.

It was mental this time, the problem with the serve: having won the first seven games so easily and having an injured opponent. This next service game things are back in order.

See you tomorrow... time to hit the sack.

Daniel has packed it in down - 6.0 5.0, shame he wasn't fit to play; I guess he didn't want to be bagled twice in one match.

Oh and it's over. I don't blame Daniel... he fought hard as long as he could.

Maybe what the doctor ordered for Rafa: not a tough match today but rather a bit of a warmup... and two more day to rebuild his energy and health.

I don't normally like to see retirements but this one was much needed. No need to see such a mismatch. Seriously, playing on the challenger circuit last year on clay gets you into the main draw here? If I were 1-22 on hard courts and drew Rafa in the 1st round, I would have 'rolled' my ankle on the first point of the match. Daniel was braver than I.

Easy day at the office for Rafa. However his first serve percentage is rather poor, only 54%. It seems thar it is becoming a habit for him to have at least one poor service game in a match. I remember him having this problem during Wimbledon, in his matches against Murray and Beedych.

I am glad that Rafa, who lately suffered from the flu (and maybe hasn't recovered 100 %), didn't need to waste much energy to ease into the second round.

Vamos!

yes exactly what was needed. He will get some more rest and recuperate.
Am looking at hear what he says in the post match conference regarding his game and his flu.

tomic destroyed chardy.

im going for the boilover, tomic to beat nadal.

book it.

Can anybody tell me how many times tomic got cracked in the first round for the tournaments that he played?

Normally I would not like to see a first round match end this way, however, given that Rafa is still recovering from that bug and may not be at full strength, I will gladly take it! He now has time to rest and get in some additional practice.

It's hard to tell from such a non-competitive match like that, what kind of form Rafa is really in at this point. His serve didn't seem to be working all that well and the first serve percentage was lower than it should be. This was a good match to maybe work out the kinks. Rafa seemed impatient and frustrated in that one service game in the second set when Daniel had a few break points. Then all of a sudden, he reeled off three big first serves in a row. I think it must have been hard to focus when it was obvious that Daniel could not hang with him.

Brad Gilbert mentioned several times that Rafa was hitting his second serve a lot faster and harder. After he made that comment, I tried to watch for those second serves. I have had a secret wish that Rafa would beef up that second serve, because it can be so attackable. I wonder if this is one of the surprises and new wrinkles he has been working on for this slam.

I am wondering if Rafa was having trouble with his serve because he was tweaking it during the match. The one thing that I loved, and I wish luckystar was here to read this, is that Rafa was going for his backhand shots. He hit a wicked crosscourt backhand for a winner in the second set. I also saw some great down the line backhands.

If I see him going for that backhand more in his next few matches, that will be a joy to see. That's when you know that Rafa is feeling good about his game. I couldn't really tell if Rafa was tired or not at his usual energy level. The match was so lacking in competitiveness, that I don't think Rafa even needed to push himself that hard.

I expect to know more when Rafa plays his second round match, provided his opponent is healthy and able to play!

Yes NNY I'm here reading and I saw that cross court backhand from Rafa, beautiful. He really needs that backhand to function well here, so that he does not need to run to cover his backhand side to hit the I/O forehand. He will not leave his forehand side wide open for his opponents to attack if his cross court backhand can do a good job. Against opponents who are quick like Fed, Murray or Nole, he really can't afford relying solely on his forehand to cover both sides of his court.

After today's match, Rafa went to the practice courts. He practiced serving half an hour.

Excerpts from Rafa's interview given today:
<<Q. Were you generally happy with the way you were going anyway?
RAFAEL NADAL: Is difficult to say something, to say I played really well, I played bad. I think I played right. I played some good shots, some long shots. The serve can be a little bit better. Yeah, that's the only point that I think I can improve. I can improve in everything for sure.
But the only thing I feel I have to improve more if I want to play well here. So that's it. For the rest, forehand and backhand, I felt okay.
Q. What about the serve? What do you need to do that's different?
RAFAEL NADAL: If I know, I will do it before. I don't know. I will try to practice a little bit. I practiced already after the match a little bit. Hopefully going to be fine.
Q. So you say after the match you went straight to the practice courts?
RAFAEL NADAL: Only for serve. Half an hour for serve.
Q. How close do you think you are to your top form, and how many games do you think you'll need to play before you're at your best?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know. I don't know where is my best level and what far I am from that. So I try my best every day. Sometimes you play well; sometimes you play a little bit worst. I can't say if I am playing at my best or not.
I think I am in the right way. We will see what's happen when I gonna play the next match. >> (Read more on AO website)