Well ... blink and it was over. In Rafa's first match he faced old standard, Stan Wawrinka, the guy who usually plays really well against Rafa but never takes a set off him. And that was the case again. Probably the most entertaining thing was that Rafa signed, signed, signed at the end of the match, and kept Feds and Isner waiting in the corridor before they could go out to play their match. Hehe.
So he then moved on to Jurgen Melzer. He's a nice guy, Jurgen ... I like him. He has a lovely smile and has a target to getting to the WTF, not only in doubles but in singles too. And he didn't do himself any harm here as took out our Rafa by a 1-6, 6-3, 3-6 scoreline. I didn't see the first set, and the scoreline obviously shows that Rafa didn't see much of it either. I think his own stubborness took him through the second set, but Rafa is clearly fatigued, not on it, mentally elsewhere ... and Jurgen did us all a favour by putting him out of his misery.
So Rafa's Far Eastern adventure is over for this season. He's not said it in so many words, but Thailand was an obligation he just had to get out of the way and I doubt we'll see him there again. Japan was a new adventure, and I think he quite enjoyed it ... but none of this after the US Open triumph put him in any real stead for the Shanghai Masters. So Rafa has 4 weeks off till he picks himself back up again ... for Paris.
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