RAFA WINS US OPEN OPENING ROUND
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Top seed, Rafa Nadal played qualifier Bjorn Phau at the U.S. Open on Monday and advanced to the second round of the last Grand Slam of the year— it just took a little longer than some may have anticipated.
Rafa's 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Bjorn Phau of Germany, a qualifier, took nearly 3 hours. Ranked 136th in the world, Phau has never advanced past the second round of the Open
With Rafa serving for the match, Phau took advantage of erratic play from the No. 1 seed, breaking back and eventually forcing a second tie break in the third set.
That the match was close for a straight-setter had as much to do with Nadal’s 35 unforced errors as Phau’s attacking style. Rafa seemed to get off to a slow start, trying to feel out his opponent. At one point the world No. 1 called a trainer to tape a blister on his left foot.
The first set was particularly close.
It could have gone either way but Rafa's experience showed as he clinched the breaker 7-4. A solitary break, which gave Rafa 4-2 lead, settled the second set while the third featured some late drama.
It looked as though Rafa had made the decisive breakthrough when he broke Phau for a 5-4 lead but the French Open and Wimbledon champion buckled when serving for the match and promptly lost his own delivery.
He held points to break again at 5-5 but some inspired play saw Phau hold on and take it to another tie-break.
Rafa continued to labour but a number of unforced errors from his opponent allowed him to claim the match in straight sets.
He will now play Ryler De Heart or Olivier Rochus.
0 comments:
Post a Comment