Bish, Bash ... Rafa defeats Gabashvili

Well, what do I say to that match? Rafa was made to serve first, he lost it, he had no length, the pocket depth on his shorts didn't seem long enough either and it was an early warning for a time violation that seemed to spin him into action. I thought he played beautiful tennis to break back to level at 3-3 in the first set and then to lead 4-3, and perhaps the toilet break he needed at the end of the first set spurred him on to win it.

But Gabashvili did what all his kind of players do against Rafa ... just batter the hell out of the ball and hope.  Not today, sunshine.  

In fact the major talking point of the match was Pascal Maria.  I mean for God's sake Rafa, speed up your routine, but then again I can't get excited about an average of him being 2 seconds over the allocated 25.  2 seconds ... it's just beyond pathetic now.  What advantage can be gained or what can anyone seriously do in 2 seconds?  Well ... I can hanker to the men of my past over that one - if you catch my drift - and Maria is just as big a plonker.  Break point down and he chooses that moment to give another violation and Rafa loses a first serve.  For once, even the the Sky commies were rolling their eyes at the ridiculousness of it all and intimating it was more about Maria flexing his muscles than a truly needed second warning at that particular point in the match.

The thing is - as always when Rafa gets mad -*takes time to ponder over that thought and sighs*  -it's his opponent that's made to suffer, and Rafa blitzed through to take the match 6-1 in the second.

I just love seeing him on the clay though.  I love his movement and his shot making and the time he seems to have to get to the ball.  Lovely.  And lets hope for a steady progression and steady improvement ... and lovely Mo in the umpire's chair.