Rafa downs Denis ...

Today Rafa took on Denis Gremelmayr. Precisely.

Now I haven't watched the match and followed it by Livescores and kindly updates. But it didn't seem to be a difficult match at all. Rafa broke twice in the first set (although one of them took over 10 minutes to achieve), and raced ahead to 5-1 in the second until finally succeeding in victory at 6-2.

Rafa played further in the court, was doing work around the net and something that would have made him happy ... he only lost 7 points on his serve.

He is obviously using matches like these to try things out as he said he would and that pleases me. He's made these adjustments to the tip of his racquet to increase the power on the serve, and he's playing more in the court. He's already warning us that things take time, but at least he's not standing still. He's trying new stuff and looking for another way to move himself on in this next phase of his career. He was predictable as he said, so good that he's trying something different.

Rafa faces Dr Mikhail Youzhney next ...