to a great start.
Nadal d. Gasquet 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Great start to the tournament. Gasquet started out with world class tennis and like I “told” him yesterday; serve must be hot! And it was at least in the first set. The reason why he lost the second was once again… his serve. His first serve % was shot down, and 2nd serves became less stress for Nadal and a headache for Richy. In the deciding set, there seemed to be almost nothing separating the two. But then Gasquet suddenly missed a 1st serve at 15-30 or something and just had to challenge it. Challenge system was slow and what is the outcome? DOBULE FAULT! Basically Game, Set, Match for Nadal. In any case Gasquet showed that he is top 8 and played his good game pretty much the entire match. A little more backhand winners and it would be optimal. Nadal played great defense as always and had little problems when Gasquet was in hesitation mode. Conclusion: deserved win for Rafa.
Ferrer d. Djokovic 6-4, 6-4
Not surprised. Ferrer got off to a flying start by breaking the Djoker @ the very start and continued to stress the Serb out on his serve. Ferrer held his serve quite easily in the first.
Djokovic came up with some sick shots, but the normal consistency sort of lacked today + that Ferrer was on fire. Very close to the match against Nadal in New York. Few errors and consistent baseline pounding was his clue. Djokovic made some rippin’ in the end, but did not manage to threaten Ferrer’s momentum. Some of his forehand rips were quite incredible pace-wise so props to Ferrer being able to return them a lot with his backhand!
Conclusion: Ferrer off to a flying start leading to group after 1 match. Djokovic should AT LEAST beat Gasquet in straight sets, to even think about SF.
