Rafa had few problems beating Frederico Gil of Portugal, winning quickly in just over an hour and a half, 6-2, 6-2.
Today he’ll come on sometime after 16:45 local time against Christophe Rochus of Belgium. Nadal has played Rochus just once before – at the Australian Open this year where he won very comfortably indeed in three sets, 6-0 6-2 6-2. It is hard to imagine Rafa having any troubles on clay.
It was impossible to find a good internet TV stream that worked yesterday, so I am posting the links below more in hope than expectation. If these don’t work, try the forums at MyP2P, perhaps Roja Directa, or see more information here. If my flight arrives in Oslo in time, will be watching and will update links as best I can!
Click on links below for live TV Streams over internet. UPDATE: Nadal won 6-2, 6-0
Option 1: Godo tennis – Live TV – Rafael Nadal vs Christophe Rochus (couple of options here, usually come on just before game)
Rafael Nadal returns to the courts Wednesday for his first match in one of his favourite tournaments – the 57th trophy for the Count of Godo, or the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell as it officially known.
His first opponent is Frederico Gil of Portugal – a player he was able to beat with just a little resistance on the hard courts of Miami just a few weeks ago. This should be a straight forward match for Rafa, but I doubt he’ll be taking things lightly and we can expect another high-octane performance from our favourite Mallorcan.
The game is due to start sometime after 2:30pm local time. Internet TV links have been bad lately, but I have put my best guesses below and will try and check and update these as the game nears.
Click on links below for live TV Streams over internet.
Option 1: Godo tennis – Live TV – Rafael Nadal vs Frederico Gil (Update: Game over, Nadal won 6-2, 6-2)
Option 2: Godo tennis – Live TV – Rafael Nadal vs Frederico Gil
Refer to this post on how to watch live tennis over the internet should you need more information or assistance. Good luck!
Rafael Nadal showed that he knows how to grind out a victory today. The Portuguese Frederico Gil, with a humble ATP ranking of just 74 put up quite a fight for the world number one, but Nadal finally managed to finish of the match in two sets, 7-5, 6-3 and secure a berth in the last 16.
In the next round Rafa will face Roger Federer’s Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka for a place in the quarterfinals after Wawrinka beat Russian Igor Andreev.
Nadal has an all-time 3-0 lead over Wawrinka in direct match ups, with the Mallorcan having won all the sets during their previous encounters on hardcourt and clay.
Rafa is odds-on favourite to proceed to the last eight, where bigger fish await.
Rafa Nadal managed to advanced to the third round of Miami, second Masters 1000 of the season. The number one needed just 82 minutes to easily defeat the russian Teimuraz Gabashvili, winning 6-2, 6-2.
Rafa’s next rival will be the Portuguese Frederico Gil, who had earlier eliminated the Croat Ivo Karlovic.
Nadal broke his rival’s service immediately, and ran out to a 2-0 lead, but Gabashvili recovered and evened things up at 2-2. From that moment on Nadal took advantage of a high percentage success rate on his first serves (76%) to string together four games and close out the set.
The Russian battled on in the second but Nadal improved his service percentage even more (81%) and added an effective return to dominate and quickly win the match.
After the match Nadal said:
“I am very happy, I think Gabashvili didn’t really play bad a game. He played hard. I think I played a very serious match, and I think I played well. It’s always an important tournament. I had two finals here and I never won. So, I would love to win.”
The Mallorcan, who comes from winning Indian Wells, has never claimed the Miami title before, having lost the finals in 2005 and 2008.
Melbourne Time
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