The outfit was hot ...

... the tennis, not. Rafa made hard work of his 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 first round victory over qualifier, the Brazlian, Marcos Daniel. His was a very laboured performance, losing serve when initially serving out for the first set and very quickly going down 3-1 in the second. It seemed to be the wake up call he needed, as he then quickly rattled off 6 games which also brought him the second set. At 5-1 up in the third, he allowed his opponent back in it, and indeed, once again lost serve when serving for the match, only to break back and then finally see it through, 6-3.

Rafa claims not be feeling the pressure as he marches forth towards an unprecendented 5th straight French Open title. “My only pressure is to try to play good tennis, try to play well, and later we will see what has happened. I was happy about my clay season. Win Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome, and playing the final in Madrid is almost a perfect clay-court season. And Roger. He was always there.” is his view.

However, take some time out to consider the following quotes from fellow Spaniard, Fernando Vedasco, and how it must be for Rafa to be the one that everyone is gunning for, trying to maintain friendships and relationships with others when all they want to do it is beat you.

“There is nobody in the men’s locker room who says the result of Roland Garros is already decided." said Verdasco. "Rafa is the favourite but all of us will fight to stop him winning it again. It’s tough for him because it is everyone against Rafa. Each time somebody plays him on clay they play that little bit harder because they want to be the one to end his run at the French Open.

He is very relaxed, but of course he is under some pressure because he has won four times. Maybe it was tougher for him when he came back here after winning that first time. But one year he needs to lose at Roland Garros, he can’t go on winning for ever.”

“The plan to beat Rafa in five sets on clay is to play unbelievable tennis and to be fitter than you have ever been before in your life,” he said. “Other players are aware that this is the standard we must attain. You have to play more than 100% on every point, like he always does. And just to have a better day than him because he is just human like everyone else and he has days when he is not feeling so good. He has an unbelievable mentality but you need to take him on one of those bad days. The reason he is No 1 and such a great player on clay is because there are hardly any of these days, but the chance will come for one of us. I want it to be me on the court with him that day.”

Forgive me for saying this Nando ... but I don't, not yet anyway. Rafa will play a Russian in his next round - either Igor Kunitsyn or Teimuraz Gabasvili.