burns don't have anything to do with it. Even a hurt Nadal would win this no closer than 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

looking forward to it i feel it would be better than 6 3 6 1 62

Ricky,
Burned fingers affects ball toss during the serve.

The burned fingers were affecting Rafa's ability to hit his backhand in Cincy. However, they seem to have healed nicely and will not be a factor in this match.

I agree with Ricky and hope to see a scoreline approximately as he posted.

Vaaaaammmmmmmoooooooossssssssss!

that's not what I meant. I was commenting on the article. Burned fingers have nothing to do with how bad he is going to beat Golubev. Nadal is going to destroy him regardless of the status of his fingers.

I disagree. Burned fingers make ANYTHING more challenging...even Andrey Golubev. He couldn't grip the racket properly, which hadn't a whit to do with his opponent in Cincinnati.

he beat Benneteau 6-4, 6-4 in Cincinnati

1) his fingers were far more burned then than they are now

2) Benneteau is light years better than Golubev

:shrug:

I'm not worried about Rafa's fingers, I'm more worried about his foot. It seems that Rafa's foot problem (since 2005) is not getting better through the years. It took him longer than expected to recover from his foot injury since Wimbledon. I hope after the USO, he can have a long break to let his foot heal properly. His condensed schedule during the clay and grass season doesn't help, so I hope he can consider skipping the Asian swing to rest and recover and at the same time think of ways to improve his game. He can then concentrate on the indoor events, may be goes to Valencia for a 500 event in addition to Paris and London.

In the meantime, one match at a time for Rafa; he may still be rusty so I don't expect 6-1, 6-2 scorelines, though he may win his first round match in straight sets.

I don't know why we are even discussing the burned fingers now. They have healed and will not be a factor.

As lucky said, the real issue is Rafa's foot. He did say in an interview that there is still some fluid in the foot and talked about injections. He says that it sometimes bothers him, but he is ready to play.

This is the foot that almost ended Rafa's tennis career before it began. I think Rafa will want to see how he feels after the USO as far as his schedule for the Asian swing is concerned. He will have to make those decisions with his team.

For now, I am looking forward to seeing Rafa's first match.

^^^^ that

Ricky, you make me laugh with your cryptic comments.

hmm. Break for Golubev.

and there's the break back for Rafa.

And Rafa inexplicably broken at love. Maybe his fingers DO still hurt, RIcky......

JOKING. Just joking.

This is like watching the WTA. What's that make? About a dozen breaks in a row?

To be fair to the players they should show them a replay if there is a dispute, not just show it to TV viewers.

well, Carlos Ramos wasn't using the replay to make the call...I'm not sure he has any say in what gets put on replay in the stadium.

The problem is that Golubev should never have missed that "volley".

This is the fullest house they've had so far.

Cheryl, what I meant was, if Golubev had seen the replay he would not have got upset and he would have calmed down. Mind you, I'm glad he got upset because it enabled Rafa to take the 2nd set.

Vamos Rafa!

I'm saying that the rules should allow for the players to see the replay.

I don't completely disagree with you, nadline.

Why can't Rafa hold on to his serve?

well, it certainly doesn't help that he's missing first serves...but really it's placement. He isn't finding the lines today.

Uncle Toni said on American TV that Rafa didn't play well in the first week of the US Open. Maybe my memory is faulty, but I remember him serving a TON last year......

Uncle Toni has a short memory because Rafa didn't drop his serve until the SF to Youzhny. In fact he only dropped his serve three times throughout the whole tournament last year. He is lacking in match play, h is not relaxed at all.

wow. back from 0-40 for Golubev. This is a bit of a train wreck all the way around.

Rafa wins! Houdini eat your heart out.

Rafa only wanted to practice his shots. Shabby performance from him, but it should get better.


Vamos Rafa!

Well, Nadal lives to fight another day, thouh it was more his name that won this one than it was his game. Glad he's through, but feel bad for Golubev. He deserved a set. I can kinda see now why he can be ranked as high as 33, but also why he can lose 18 straight.

so it was better than 6 3 61 62

^^^ LOL

I can't believe the way Rafa is playing these days. What happened to him. I am sure he will have to up his game if he has to defend USO. I hope he will do that. I would love Rafa to win every match and every tourney. I am not able to see him play this way. Come on Rafa please practice hard and defend this title for all our Rafans. I badly want you to win this USO. Vamosssssssssssss . I know no one can win every time but when you lose its hard to digest for me.

Actually Rafa's serves lack 'bite' and they're returnable despite the speed. I agree it's the placement that matters and he's not placing them well today so much so that Golubev sort of predicted where they would go and was ready to return them.

Rafa is not playing with confidence as he's basically playing his usual clay court game, taking a defensive position by standing so far behind the baseline and allowing Golubev to dictate play throughout the WHOLE match. He was broken so many times and was basically chasing from behind in each set! That won't do if he meets some higher ranked and better hard court players. He's not hitting with confidence as he's not placing his shots closer to the lines and allowed Golubev to step in and get to so many shots and returned them with interest. He's not making his angled shots and was overhitting his forehands.

Golubev certainly played aggressively as he's nothing to lose. I like the way he forced Rafa back away from the baseline, at either the forehand or the backhand corner, opening up the court and hit his shots out wide to the other corner, causing Rafa to miss so many of them. To me, Rafa's game has deteriorated so much since that Miami tournament, for whatever reasons. He'll have his hands full going forward in this tournament, if he gets past Mahut, he still has Ljuby/Nalby to deal with, followed by Gulbis/Muller or Melzer, not as easy a draw or as smooth a path Rafa's detractors believed will be. One match at a time from now on, I'm glad Rafa didn't get knocked out in the first round, just like how he dodged the bullet at the FO round one against Isner.

This match reminded me of his struggles with Dennis Istomin in the 2nd round of USO. Even the scoreline seems the same. THere he did not get broken but also could not break. Even today Rafa could hardly defend break points and could hardly convert on break points. But a win is a win. At least it was not a scrappy Verdasco like win. But the aggression that we saw from him in INdian Wells and Miami is certainly missing. His serving barely was inspiring. My hope is that he can at least reach the semis. It was only Golubev who lost the opportunity to win the 2nd and 3rd set by making error after error. Flittering away triple set point on serve was inexplicable. BUt a good workout nonetheless.

Rafa was playing defensive all the time he appeared tight and I think he played far worse than against Istomin last year. I lost coount of the number of times he dropped his serve which was his undoing because, evidently, he had no trouble breaking Golubev but just couldn't hold on to his serve. He didn't drop his serve once until the SF against Youzhny last year.

I hope he gets a scare from this because playing like that won't defend his title.

well i think nadal has more chances than djokovic to win this us open despite the fact that the surface is slower ( so many breaks and acknowledged by the man with maximum majors) some people might laugh on this but its my take he will lift his game as the tournament progresses but will that be enough if murray doesnot come in his path and he is also able to avoid djokovic in the final he will win it but such chances are slim

I also found myself reminded of Rafa's second round match against Istomin in last year's USO. Rafa was down in that second set tiebreak 5-1 and somehow pulled it out with another Houdini performance.

What got Rafa through the early rounds last year was that big serve. People forget that he was very rusty and his groundstrokes were nowhere near their best. He barely went for his cc and dtl backhand shots and when he did, more often than not he missed. The forehand was not penetrating as deep and sometimes sailed past the line.

This year Rafa isn't serving the way he did in 2010. He seemed to be trying to go for the big serve, with some early aces clocked at 133 mph and 131 mph and other big serves at 128 mph. He played well in the first set, but I thought he was having trouble with Golubev's aggressive play. I was very stressed out watching the second set. Breaks of serve all over the place! To see Rafa go down 2-5 was almost surreal. I give Golubev credit for playing some great tennis, but Rafa wasn't going for winners and moving into the court. Golubev seemed to lose it after his argument with the chair umpire. He thought that Rafa didn't get to his drop shot in time and the ball bounced twice. The replay showed he was wrong, but the umpire didn't let him challenge because he played out the point. He was the one who screwed up by missing that easy volley at net. He got broken and then he just seemed to not be able to get that point out of his head. Rafa was quite fortunate to pull out that second set.

I got so stressed when Rafa fell behind at 2-5 in the third set, that I stopped watching. I came back in time to see the last game. What a relief! I have now watched the part of the third set that I missed. Rafa did come on strong to level the set at 5-all. He played some great passing shots to break Golubev and get the win.

I am hoping this tough first match will give Rafa some confidence and rhythm and timing on his shots. He came into the USO this year with even less preparation than last year. I didn't think the score would be this close. I was hoping that Ricky was right with his score prediction, but Golubev came to play and caught a rusty, out of form Rafa.

I am going to just take it one match at a time, like Rafa. I hope to see improvement in his next match. It was an ugly win, but a win is a win is a win.

Rafa says he's got 2 days off, does that mean he won't play until Friday?

Something needs to snap into place for him to regain the fluidity in his game. On the bright side, he needed a long match to get some match play in and he was impressive coming back twice from 2-5 down to saving the 2nd and 3rd sets. So there is hope.

I think Rafa does have 2 days off because Roger is not scheduled to play today so having played his first match on Monday, he is not due to play again until Thursday nor is Nole. With Murray playing his first match today, he shouldn't play his next match until Saturday - what a ridiculous schedule.

Rafa played better last year, against Gabashville and Istomin. Both of them were big hitters and big servers too but the difference was with Rafa, not with his opponents. Last year Rafa played with confidence, fresh and was not coming back from any foot injury. He had already won two slams in a row, was playing more aggressively by taking a more aggressive position on the court in addition to his big serves.

This year, he's definitely not confident, just came back from his foot injury and is playing very defensively by standing so far behind the baseline. Rust aside, I noticed that when he's playing against someone for the first time, he usually takes a defensive position, takes his time to feel his opponent's game before deciding his moves. Golubev doesn't give him the rhythm he needs as Golubev just goes for broke, knowing that may be the only way for him to beat Rafa.

I feel too that on quicker courts (relatively speaking), Rafa tends to stand further behind the baseline to give himself more time to read his opponent's serves, especially against those big serving opponents. He did mention when asked in Madrid why he was standing so far behind the baseline to return serves, after his match against Fed, that he did that to allow himself to read his opponent's serves better and that helped in cutting down the number of aces his opponents hit at him. If I remember correctly, Fed was also being asked after that match about not being able to serve many aces against Rafa and he basically said the same thing.

In IW and Miami where the courts were slower, Rafa was standing closer to the baseline and that allowed him to play more aggressively. The problem now with Rafa is that he doesn't adjust his position and moves closer to the baseline after he returns the serves, something he didn't do since Madrid, Rome, Cincy and now the USO.

He misses some forehands, maybe still rusty and hasn't found his range yet, or he's still not trusting his left foot. I noticed he hardly hit a DTL forehand too in this match. He needs his passing shots to be working well against Mahut, who can serves well and plays the S&V game.

Actually to be honest, I didn't think Rafa was at risk of losing to Golubev, knowing Golubev!! The breaking of serves by Golubev and then he got broken back was no surprise, the surprise was that Rafa's service games were being broken so easily, once in set one, and twice each in set two and three, that's five times within one match, quite ridiculous by Rafa's standard, given that his opponent was not Nole! And what's with Rafa's poor break point conversion these days, I guess it boils down to his not so good ROS, where his opponent just serves a good serve and is able to save the break point. We saw how many times Golubev was down in his service games but still managed to get to deuce and then went on to win the game!

Yes, all along I had the feeling that Rafa would win in the end, but I thought Golubev would take a set. Let's see what he does against Mahut.


Vamos Rafa!

So I do not understand why people (Rafahuggers) were stating that Fed was so obviously being favored by the scheduling. I read posts he is playing his second match before Murrays first match? Why all this hate when obviously Fed is not favored at all when he was given the last slot on monday and not scheduled on wednesday.
They are tennispros and are expecting to play 7 matches untill next sunday so whatever happens they will deal with it.

Nadal played a FINE match ! he has hitting the forehand really well , much more aggressive, just like last year. Backhand was better but still confidence building will improve his backhand big time. I do not know why people expect a blow out, golubev can hit so big , he was crazy with those risky shots. Rafa now should work on his serve, get it back like last year. He never does so well in rnd 1 of a major so thats a consolation. Rafa is gona play a great US open, i am telling ya

Vamosrafa, I'm sure Rafa will try his best, but there's obviously something wrong with his court position. As a result he was being bossed around by Golubev the whole match, unable to reach those out wide shots from Golubev because he simply had so much ground to cover. He was fortunate it's Golubev he was playing against, and not Berdych or Tsonga. When Rafa is playing well, I'm sure he can beat Berdych(like in Miami this year) and Tsonga, not to mention this Golubev. Right now he's obviously not playing well with his serves being broken so many times. Maybe he'll improve as he goes along; after that Dodig match which he didn't play badly at the beginning but still managed to lose, I can't help but feel worried for his every match.

vamosrafa - there were things about Nadal's game that were working well last night. His forehand was lovely and his movement was perfect. Court positioning wasn't great, his serve was far too attackable and until the last few games, his backhand was a non-factor.

The good news for the Nadal camp is that all of the issues can be solved as the tournament progresses.

How an earth can people discussing the scheduling end up being described as 'haters'? That's paranoid.

ed, just what's being discussed on another thread..:(

Sienna... just a simple question... the one, which you are trying to avoid!
At SF...Finale... someone will have one day more to recover. That's the point!
And scheduling ...what criteria has been used ? Why is Fed first one to play? Not Rafa (Champion) or Novak (new No1)...
Why not Andy???

deuce: mind boggling is the only word for it........ :-O

Guys..this is atleast better than Roland Garros 1st round where it went to 5 and he scraped through..but as tournament progressed he became better atleast from qtrs onwards

He was always behind in 2nd n 3rd and came back n won..thats good

Also his interview sounded positive..he says he can improve in days to come with more match practice

vamosrafa : What are you expecting wen u say hell play a great US open? expecting the title?

also rafa said his first round match this year was identical to gabas match in 1st round last year wer though he didnt lose serve, he didnt play that well..

I don't know, maybe I am being too biased here or I am seeing things the way I want them to be seen...I just think, like vamosrafa, that Rafa did not play a bad match at all last night...true, his serve dropped in the set 2 and 3 and it was easy to read and attack, but it is no surprise for the first match and it will improve...however, he did serve out some nice ones in the key moments and it brought his confidence back so I believe it made him confident to fight back...he managed to break Golubev three times in the third...his forehands were nice and deep, much better than those in Cincy...I felt bad about him losing his service games but then again I thought he seemed more than certain throughout the match that he would be able to break Golubev back and he did not seem too worried...then we saw Rafa lifting his game and making Golubev frustrated...

we must also give Golubev some credit for how he performed...he played aggressive and his shots were fast and precise...any top player would have been troubled with the opponent like that...but Rafa managed to fight back and he did great in his come back in the third...after all, I think Rafa played a fine match...he needs better serving but it will come...and I just love that he had a test at the very beginning...this will only make him stronger...
VAMOS RAFA!!!

Rafa, Rafa, Rafa!!!!.....................you may contribute to me dying earlier than the Gods plan!!!!