Well at least this time he won a match ... lol. Rafa faced Julien Benneteau in his first match and eased out the winner by a 6-4, 7-5 scoreline. To be honest, I'd give him 6.5 out of 10 for this performance. His serving stats were pretty good in the first set for first serves in and percentage points on 1st and 2nd serves, and he made the break at the opportune moment without really playing lights out tennis.
His form dipped a little bit I feel in the second set, and he secured a break more down to the mistakes of his opponent, rather than Rafa's good play. I'm a little disturbed that a player such as Benneteau was able to flatten out his shots to the point that he could keep in the rallies and not only hang in there with Rafa, but move him around to so much so that it ended up being HIM that made the mistakes. Too much paranoia of watching him of late, I think. And I have to say I reeled with disappointment when Rafa served for the match at 5-4 for him to then lose his serve 15-40. Gaah!! But Rafa bounced back immediately and broke, and then served out a bit more comfortably to win the match.
He did a massive Si! when he won and fist pumped like mad, so the adrenalin was obviously flowing. I still don't think its the greatest tennis we have ever seen Rafa play, but its enough for now. Fer now awaits him in the next round.
No comments:
Post a Comment