I felt sick to my stomach for most of it. Rafa played Robin Haase ranked 150 in his second round match. Haase has been out with injury and so had fallen down the rankings, and he was an opponent that Rafa had never played before.
He seemed rather tight in the first set and they matched each other until Rafa served at 4-5, was 30-0 up, but a double fault and a miss later brought Haase back into it and the poor game continued till he was broken and before you knew it, he was a set down. Rafa recovered in usual Rafa style to take the second 6-2, and he started well in the third to leave us all thinking that business would be as usual and he would get a handle on this match.
But no. Haase - who looks like Ruud Van Nisterooy's younger brother - served like a demon, and once again Rafa just had the one loose service break which was followed up by a game of 4 straight aces by Haase and there you had it ... the third set was gone 6-3.
My nerves were at breaking point then because there was nothing else for it ... Rafa would have to go to 5 to take the match. He stormed back in the 4th and handed out a bagel set and there were we, the crap shoot of the 5th set.
After being battered in the 4th, Haase found his serve again, but Rafa managed a break in the 5th set which was greeted with one of his all time best celebrations ... a massive leap in the air and a spectacle of fist pumping that was not for the faint hearted. Rafa then held, as did Haase, but Rafa stepped up and served the match out.
Pheweeee ... totally nerve wracking. Lets not have any more of them for the rest of the tournament. Eh, Rafa?? ...
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