Rafa's rocky opener ...

All aboarrrrrrrrd!! Blimey! were we all strapped tightly into that rollercoaster last night then?? Rafa started the match what seemed fairly brightly, and had a couple of break points, but to no avail. His own service game was littered with errors and two double faults, the second of which cost him the game. Roddick then started to play pretty well and made life uncomfortable indeed for our Rafa and he took the first set 6-3.

For all Roddick's good play, he was helped in no small part by some terrible Rafa errors, and his big shots of the forehand and his new serve were not firing at all. When Roddick broke again in the second set, sorry to say this, but I thought it was curtains for Rafa as he hadn't had a sniff at the Roddick serve since the first game. But he broke straight back and the set headed to a tie-breaker.

Clunk, click ... that was me getting myself strapped in. Rafa, however, was starting to feel his way into the match and find his form a little better and thankfully, he pulled off the breaker by 7-5 points. I somehow then felt - as you do with Rafa - that he was going to win this match. He was obviously lacking practice, rhythm, range and finesse after a 5 week lay off, but I felt Roddick tired and lost his momentum. Rafa broke and took the match with a third set scoreline of 6-4. Phew ...

The stars came out to watch him play last night - and no, I don't just mean Rafan, Pearl and Mrs L - Kylie decorated Rafa's box along with a couple of actresses who weren't recognisable to me. And oh ... Diego Maradona graced with presence. Nole next ... now that will be one heck of a match and Rafa will have to get a whole load better ...