World number 1, and this blogger’s favorite male player played his first round match tonight at the US Open. He had a tougher time than anyone expected defeating Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6, 7-6, 6-3. His backhand was shaky and his return game was M.I.A until the third set. But I don’t want to be all Negative Nelly on Rafa, I thought he served extremely well. Nadal fans have been writing “131″ on their blogs and tweets all evening. That’s because Nadal hit a 131 mph serve tonight. In fact, he was serving bombs all night. Can we all raise a glass to the return of Rafa’s big serve which took an extended vacation during the Cincinnati Masters? He wasn’t broken once and ran around the court like rabbit. A rabbit in black.
Let’s talk about the kit for a minute then shall we? It’s sleek and it fits him like a glove. The color combination finally works and the shoes are on point. In other words, I approve. I really approve. Let’s hope we get to see more of this ensemble during the next two weeks.
In other news:
- Novak Djokovic won a match he should have lost.
- Ernests Gulbis lost a match he should have won
- The New Haven curse has reared his head: Nadia Petrova and Marcos Baghdatis were bounced out
- The Glitter Serb nearly met the same fate, but her opponent gagged a big one and she slipped through
- Fernando Verdasco and David Nalbandian, potential 3rd opponents decided they wanted extra practice at playing long drawn out error-prone matches. *yawn*
- I’m not even going to mention the tweener shot by the Swiss #2. Enough wads have been blown and enough panties have been wrung over it already. No need to say more.
