Rafa puts Fish in his plaice ...

Sorry ... that was Cats' joke today on the forum.

But the sentiment is true! Whilst of course I didn't watch the match at 4 am, the 7-5, 6-1 scoreline and all the reports I have read, lead to an opinion that Rafa played very well today. Well into the court, aggressive and whilst Fish hung in there to match Rafa in the first set, at 5-5 he seemingly raised his gears and breezed through the rest of the match.

The only thing was that his service percentage was down, although his points won were pretty good. Before the Asian swing, Uncle Toni was intimating that the serve was the shot that let him down in the US Open and the shot they were working most on in practice ... was the serve. So perhaps Rafa is still feeling his way with what he's doing there. Nonetheless, a hardcourt victory against a resurgent Fish is a good result, I feel.

So he's through to yet another final ... and this time, he will face Andy Murray.

VAMOS RAFA!!