Good start of the Rogers Cup campaign for Rafael Nadal.
The Spaniard beats a dangerous Stakhovsky 7-6 (4) 6-3. Rafa struggled only in the 9th game of the opener when he failed to serve out the set. For the rest he was quite steady.
Nadal: I played a positive match
Rafa commented “I think it was a good match. Only one bad game in the whole match at 5-4 with my serve in the first set. The rest was a positive match I think.
The conditions were not easy today. A lot of wind (against) a player who don’t want to play a lot of points from the baseline, so I tried to play the points shorter, going to the net, playing with slice. It was not an easy opponent to start.”
Next vs. Youzhny
Rafa will play Youzhny in the 3rd round. Head to head is 12-4 for Nadal, but that may not be easy.
| VINTAGE RAFA |
| SOLID STUFF |
