No Super Mario today
Photo by REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Rafa took on Mario Ancic in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open today. Ancic’s ranking has dropped horribly thanks to a prolonged bout of mono, but he’s doing his best to work his way back up and got off to a good start in this tournament. But it’s one thing playing against lower ranked players and another playing against the top guys. Rafa was smacking the ball and looking confident as he rolled over Ancic: 6-2, 6-2.
Stats:
| Nadal | Ancic | |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics on Serve | ||
| Aces | 5 | 2 |
| Double Faults | 3 | 2 |
| 1st Serve % | 65% | 60% |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 23/24 (96%) | 15/31 (48%) |
| 2nd Serve Points Won | 9/13 (69%) | 9/21 (43%) |
| Break Points Saved | 0/0 (%) | 5/9 (56%) |
| Service Games Played | 8 | 8 |
| Statistics on Return | ||
| 1st Return Points Won | 16/31 (52%) | 1/24 (4%) |
| Second Return Points Won | 12/21 (52%) | 4/13 (31%) |
| Break Points Won | 4/9 (44%) | 0/0 (%) |
| Return Games Played | 8 | 8 |
| Statistics on Points | ||
| Total Service Points Won | 32/37 (86%) | 24/52 (46%) |
| Total Return Points Won | 28/52 (54%) | 5/37 (14%) |
| Total Points Won | 60/89 (67%) | 29/89 (33%) |
| Other Stats | ||
| Winners | 23 | 10 |
| Unforced errors | 8 | 24 |
| Net Approaches | 4/5 (80%) | 8/14 (57%) |
As it happened blatherings:
Dear Tennis Channel – I could hear Rafa being introduced in the background while you show me a match I don’t care about. Switch courts, please.
The shorts are back. I don’t approve, but I prefer Rafa clad in ugly shorts to him injured or playing like crap, so I need to shut up.
Marc! in the stands.
Ancic serving to get things started. He nets a ball after a longish rally: 0-15. Rafa steps up and smacks a forehand: 0-30. Good serve from Ancic: 15-30. Ancic takes a huge swing at a forehand and sends the ball way wide: 15-40. Rafa breaks to go up 1-0.
Serve down the middle goes wide and one in the middle of the service box goes long: 0-15. Ancic sends a return wide: 15-15. Mid rally, Rafa smacks a forehand winner into the corner: 30-15. Ancic nets a ball: 40-15. Rafa holds: 2-0.
@astraldrops: He looks on mission. That focused look would scare a panther out of hiding.
Nice serve and volley from Ancic gives him 15-0. Ancic sends a ball just long: 15-15. Nice serve from Ancic: 30-15. Ancic doesn’t do quite enough with a volley and Rafa blasts a forehand by him: 30-30. Nice serving from Ancic saves a break point and then gives him a game point. Ancic nets a return and we are back to deuce. Rafa sends a forehand wide and deep and Ancic can barely get a racket on it: break point. A long rally ends with an unforced error from Rafa as he nets a ball: deuce. Rafa sends a ball long: game point. Nice volley from Ancic and Rafa nets the return; game to Ancic.
Running forehand down the line, oh how I’ve missed you: 15-0. Ancic sends a return out: 30-0. Rafa’s got writing on his hand again – every time at Indian Wells… Ancic sends a ball long and Rafa has a game point. Nice forehand and Rafa holds: 3-1.
Rafa smokes a cross-court angled return, but it’s just wide: 0-15. Ancic nets a ball: 15-15. Double fault: 15-30. Rafa totally blows a shot and the ball lands somewhere in the desert: 30-30. He follows that up with a beautiful forehand down the line banana shot: break point. I loves me a good banana. The net cord shows Ancic some love: deuce. Rafa sends a return long: game point Ancic.
@kefuoe: does the writing say anything about bad lobs?
Drop shot from Ancic dribbles over the net, Rafa runs up and at the last second flicks a cross-court winner. Ace: 30-0. Rafa conquers another net cord: 40-0. Rafa holds at love: 4-2.
Two loose shots from Ancic and he’s down 0-30. Another running forehand just drops in: 0-40. Rafa holds at love.
@theshiznik: Rafa is playing some sick tennis. Love. It.
@kefuoe: Only the 6th game, and the match has at least 4 highlight shots
Hey, Tennis Channel, the match is back on. Stop with your stupid “court report” thing. Thank goodness for tennistv.com.
Up 30-0, Rafa double faults and SMACKS the ball back in frustration. Smart point: serve one direction, second shot in another: 40-15. Stress-free hold for Rafa and he takes the first set: 6-2.
@kefuoe: Seems like this match will be too short; not enough of this amazing Nadal tennis. :(
@LuvCurlin: Exactly, we want to see Rafa Tennis Channel – even if he is wearing ugly shorts! LOL! He’s playing well.
Nothing going right for Ancic now – Rafa has triple break point. Ancic comes into the net and pops off a nice volley: 15-40. Rafa breaks to start set 2.
@kefuoe: I’ll tell you one thing: I’m totally NOT noticing the shorts at this point.
@Ataraxis00: Goodness!! Rafa’s just full of awesome passing shots today. Like .. more than normal.
@bgtennisnation: Nice to see Ancic in a big match but Nadal looks very sharp with crisp movement – the ball really JUMPS off his racket on this court!
Sexy ace: 30-0. Ancic nets a shot: 40-0. Rafa smacks the heck out of the ball and wins a game at love.
Rafa sends a forehand down the line just wide: 15-0. Ancic miss hits: 15-15. Nice serve: 30-15. Ancic holds. Rafa still in lead: 2-1.
Ace: 15-0. Another amazing forehand down the line: 30-0. At 40-0, he hits another forehand down the line to hold.
Rafa sends a shot wide: 15-0. Ancic hits behind Rafa for a clean winner: 30-0. Rafa sends a shot just long. Ancic sends a shot long. Ancic holds: 3-2.
@RagingBitch: Yeah I can’t get too excited about a match w such a rusty opponent. Isner or Sam will be the real test. Hope he kicks ass.
Double fault from Rafa: 0-15. Nice wide serve and an angled reply to the short return: 15-15. Forehand winner: 30-15. Ancic stops play to challenge a call, but is shown to be wrong: 40-15. Easy hold for Rafa: 4-2.
Marc!
Ancic sends a shot long: 15-15. Rafa hits a return right at Ancic’s feet as he’s trying to move forward: 15-30. Forehand winner from Rafa thanks to a short, high ball: 15-40. Ancic sends a shot wide and Rafa breaks for 5-2. He can serve it out next game.
Rafa holds at love and is through to the next round. Where he’ll take on the winner of the Querrey/Isner match.
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this one of the best rafa i have ever seen i am not exagarating..
I totally agree…He hasn’t looked this good in awile…well…his tennis anyway…
His tennis was amazing today. My kids were laughing and screaming at some of his shots. It was so nice to see some of the tennis we have grown to love and have been patiently waiting to see.
By the way, there was shot on his hand when he was getting ready to serve. Something was written in sharpie. I could not make it out, anyone else notice that? Whatever it was, it worked!
For some reason, he has writing on his hand every year at IW. He’s never answered exactly what it is.
While I LOVED the way Rafa played today, it’s difficult to say where he really is in his game since Ancic wasn’t playing that well at all. I’m still very encouraged, though. Rafa was hitting a lot of forehand down the lines – a confidence-needed shot for him.
I noticed it too … we will have to do some detective work.
Miri, that is very interesting about the marking on his hand. Now I’m going to die of curiosity!
Actually didn’t Ancic have writing on his hand or was that Rafa’s hand I was looking at? I was very busy typing on the keyboard & just put my head up to see the hand. One of us has got to ask him. Maybe it is a positive words to encourage him. Who knows except him..
Btw, miri did you or anyone time this match. I think it was less than 60 minutes!!! That surely says something about Rafa’s control over the match!!
It was definitely Rafa’s hand. I paused the DVR and tried to make out the writing. No luck.
Hmmm, I was hoping someone’d be able to read that. I always find it very special that he can write on his racket holding hand! I remember he had something written on his palm a few years back and kept looking at it while playing..
Well I mean, not really while he’s hitting the ball (!) but when he is waiting to receive, etc.
Match time is shown on the results page.
I agree Miri, although exhiliration to see Rafa in this kind of mood, Ancic was below par so its hard to tell really, Isner or Querry will be a lot tougher for him.
So the writing on the hand has been going on already…interesting :)
I go with you Miri as to where Rafa’s game is going from this point. But he played really well today. I also noted that the commentator misses Rafa’s game. He even said and I qoute “We need you back Rafa!” So Rafa, We need you back! Slowly and surely getting there… Seems that the knees are not bothering you much now.
Yea, I saw it too and wondered what it was or what it said…
I thought it was a tatoo…Maybe a lucky mantra. It certainly worked.
Sexy forehands! 8 unforced errors, i remember only seeing one with the forehand…… his forehand was working verry wel
( i like to just say forehand today :) )
Me likey Rafa looking like this!!!
Thanks Rafa for making it quick so i can go now and have a full night off dreaming about you;)
Over in Malaysia, I was getting breakfast and school lunches ready and before my kid was out the door, the match was over!
The forehands and the low number of errors were truly sexy!
I think I’d like the shorts better if they were made from silk in the shape of low-rising drawstring pajama bottoms ; )
Low rising pants=treasure trail…ahh!
Rafa looked colm today and reminded me of the Rafa of about a year ago. His energy and therefore confidence is shining through. Bueno!
I think Rafa’s gonna catch fire very soon, if this kinda tennis keeps up. Great stuff!
I don’t know where to start! Serve super hyper on, both first and second, great placement, great ground strokes (among which the fastest of the tournament so far, according to the commentator). Confident play, painting the lines, one banana shot, some great spectacular net play. Some winners while being on the defensive as well. 8UEs? A long awaited stat.
Keep it up, Rafa. Great job!!!
he played really well today! love that he’s on to playing in the next round (well, duh). hope he keeps up his form the rest of the tournament and the rest of the season. vamos!
btw, miri, you post these things super fast! one of the reasons why i love your site so much. :)
My only complaint is that it was over too soon, wanted more lovely views of Rafa. Nice to see him confident and hitting some great shots. The shorts, IMO, went from scary to ok to sort of cute (not that he could look anything but adorable/sexy).
Oh, I loved those netcord points rafa won and jason goodall commenting “he’s telling the lady luck to get out of here!”. And I hardly ever noticed rafa’s shorts today! Rafa’s tennis trumps his ugly shorts! Way to go RAFFFFFFA!
Oh Happy Day … Rafa was dreamily good.
If any of you caught the match with Djokovic and Kohlscheiber all I can say is that wasn’t what a #2 in the world should look like … this was!
yeah, i saw glimpses of that match too. i was expecting an upset but nole pulled through. really hoping that rafa will be back to number 2 soon. *sigh*
Last comment concerning the dreaded shorts…. at least he is not pulling as much!! But, as Jason Goodall said, Happy Days for Rafa fans :-) He looked awesome today, relaxed, focused and confident. Great to have him back.
Errrrrrrrrrr yes he was pulling just as bad – except we are lucky the ugly monstrosity shorts sort of camoflauges it. I deliberately stayed very close to his but picking and I sort of missed count (coz there were so many!!), so let me tell you it really doesn’t matte what he wears – it is just a habit. And god forbid do not change it. He did say once that he will try and stop but it never happened and I wouldn’t want him to if it loses him matches, just by concentrating to stop!
They were so good on Sky. They love Rafa – and I dunno how many times they said really glad to have him back!
Yea Rafafan the comments on Rafa were awsome tonight, I enjoyed it so much, some of the shots all round were amazing, lets hope he keeps it up, bugger the picking and the shorts all I care about is his tennis! he looks great in anything anyway!
Rafa is back baby, he’s back! Well, he never did go away, but just looking awesome today! So sharp and the ball is just rocketing off his racket! He’s hitting w so much confidence I love it. Damn, I love those points where the net cord was lucky to Mario but Rafa goes and puts it away anyway :) So quick on his feet, so calm, so confident. And of course looking so fine :) Those shorts still make me chuckle, but I think he looks cute in them. Only Rafa could. Vamos Rafa!!! On to the next round.
Great, great game! Rafa looked super confident the whole time and played some terrific shots. It was actually fun to have a quick great game with no times of angst and nail-biting. And the shorts can stay as long as he keeps playing so well!
Love Rafa. Love Robbie. Love Jason. Quite like Mario too, poor thing, but sooo good to see Rafa bounce back and look confident again. Good to see him finding the lines again. Great stuff.
Have to agree with you. Loved it when Robbie referred to him as “the magician”. Rafa does weave magic & sometimes we just forget.
He is showing all, he is back & he means fucking business.
Also it cracked me up when Robbie said “look at that ball boy he just dropped the ball”. Rafa had hit the ball so fast he stated something like it was smoking hot & too hot for the boy to hold… Jason said they need oven mittens his shots are so fast. Hehe!!! Awe, they just love him especially when he is playing like this. Outerlimits stuff I tell ya!!!
Vamos Rafa, el ray de la pista siempre!!!!!!!
He struck a forehand at 110mph!!!! That’s faster than some of his serves. And you’re right, Rafa is “The Magician”.
Yeah, I loved his comment about the ballboy dropping the ball because it was too hot! Robbie cracks me up sometimes! And Rafa really did smack the hell out of that ball. Fantastic!
this is the best i have seen of Rafa in 12 months!!!! i love it!!!!!VAMOS!!!!!
I couldn’t agree with you more. That was awesome to watch him play like that today. He’s looking better than Djokovic and Federer right now, and I haven’t said that about Rafa in quite some time. I can definitely see him repeating as champion if he continues playing like this.
I agree with all of you! What a happy day indeed. I would not have minded watching Rafa play like this for much longer despite the shorts. Sorry Mario, but Rafa needed a match like this to get back to the top of his game. He now has the momentum to blast through the big serving Isner/Querrey! VAMOS!!
OK guys and girls, lets put it into perspective. Mario was rubbbish – davidenko anyday would have almost slaughtered Rafa (won’t now as wrist injury). There were some great points but more or less it wasn’t really painted lines from Rafa or Marcio- just straight back at the person. And yeah it’s rally weird but you get to feel sort of …. disappointed that Rafa didnj’t struggle slightly or have a bit of a match! Well what the f…ck am I complaining about!! xx
Mayb Jimmy (where are you?) got a bit of an analysis about our boy Rafa with his brilliant/ok tennis at the mos.
Can we analyse fairly on a second match? plus he did win the doubles wht a dorky match that was! x
Rafafan did you watch Federers game or even Noles? You’d be impressed with Rafa as those 2 that are ahead of him at the momment didn’t play their games very well infact if they played Rafa the same way, Rafa would have wiped the floor.
Most early rounds & correct me if I’m wrong, most top players do enough to get by. That is why some actually have a hard time & go the extra set. Sometimes it backfires & they lose. Nole was 3 match points down & thought oh shit I better put the burners on.
Rafa put more effort into his game today. He needed to for his own confidence & ego!!!
I’m not sure if you were watching the game properly as Rafa played sublimely. He was in complete control. Didn’t you notice when he missed a shot he was annoyed at himself as he knew he is the better player & shouldn’t have missed them. He’ll be practicing as I type this to eek out those misses
I totally agree Mary, his inside out f/h’s were awsome along with his banana shots, defense and reflex volleys. Sure he didn’t have much resistance but there was enough to get excited about,lets hope he can improve more andmore, Isner is a handleful!
Isner still has improvements to make, despite being top 20 now. If he gets past Querrey, I still don’t see him having a chance against Rafa. Rafa was amazing out today there and his shots looked like absolute magic. No wonder he’s so popular. He makes tennis look so good.
Totally agree, Mary! Let’s just enjoy (so much) this game and not worry about the next one. Isn’t the old saying something like: tomorrow’s worries will take care of themselves. Rafa was just awesome and that’s all there was to it!
Right … what are you complaining about again?
And why would Davydenko be guaranteed to slaughter Rafa? I seem to remember he didn’t exactly “slaughter” him the last time they met – and Davy was in top form.
Rafafan, you entirely have the right to youre own opinion but this is my putting things in perspective:
We’ll never know what would have happened had he played Davy, because he wasn’t! Yeah it was a lot off straight back at Mario untill he got a shorter ball which he could smack into a corner… This was working verry well for him so why should he have done otherwise? I do not think that Rafa’s game plans are so one dimensional that he could’nt have changed if necassary. This match i saw him hitting flat and hard, i saw him play agressive hard court tennis with the forehand working awesome and some room for improvement on the backhand still and i saw him crush an opponent who, given the way that opponent played, he should have crushed! My trainer sometimes says; you only can play as well as youre opponents let you, well maybe Mario let Rafa play well or maybe Mario was rubbish because Rafa was playing so well…. i dunno, only thing i know is that i’m never able to find the awnser to that question after evry match i played myself i wonder iff these top-guys do?
What i do know is that i watched the Djoko match before Rafa’s and that Djoko looked flat, hardly showing emotion and looking as iff he wasn’t awake at all and rather had bin anywhere else then on that tenniscourt! It was refreshing to see Rafa’s sharpness, his focus and the way he didnt seem to want to be anywhere else then on that tenniscourt, smacking the hell out off tennisballs:)
Even if Mario didn’t play great, it’s still better for Rafa to be through to the next round having played a great comfortable match instead of having fought for every point against a player who wasn’t at his best. Some months ago we were rambling about Rafa’s epic matches against players who shouldn’t have caused him any trouble. Well now he’s back from injury again but he seems to be handling things better than last time.
Well said Tiemyshoe!
Was it just the jerky streaming video or was Rafa’s reaction time on return of service phenomenal today? He seemed to be either aniticpating very well or reacting very quickly, or both, punching back some great return of service points.
It’s been awhile since he’s hit winners like what I saw today. The man’s a BEAST, lol. Great to have him back
I thought so too. He was definitely returning better. He can still improve, but we saw some returns that hadn’t been there for a while. He was certainly trying to produce better returns than just hitting the ball back to Mario.
Wow. I rather enjoyed that match. Got to see some Rafa mojo, a little strut and swagger. Keep building up that rythym and good feelings.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but I think despite the lack of quality from Ancic, Rafa played pretty clean tennis for the most part. No where near the greatest level or the bottom. I thought it was damn good for his 2nd match in this tourney. He did what he had to do and then some against today’s opponent. This was not Davy, or Querrey, etc. One opponent and one match at a time. Vamos!
So worth getting up at 5am to watch that match.
Beautiful Rafatennis. Beautiful Stats (luv single digit unforced). Beautiful Rafa.
Mario may not be the most challenging opponent now, but Rafa gained confidence from the match. His killer shots returned, along with his great movement, and serving a lot better. I want to watch the match again, or at least highlights of the banana shots, the gets at the net etc
Robbie and Jason are funny:
‘don’t know if the designer of those shorts is getting his contract renewed. Think he’s a runner at another company now’. Now they’re fashion experts. Last time they commented on Xisca’s hair.
One of them heard Rafa say to Mario during the handshake ‘good to see you back’. Sweet.
Funny the dj seemed to forget to turn off the ‘we are family’ song when Rafa was ready to serve and he had to signal the umpire.
Next opponent: a tall, big serving American, one of which may be wearing a similar outfit as Rafa.
This was one of the best matches I’ve seen Rafa play in quite some time. His racquet was on fire with some of those shots. Vintage Rafa! Plain and simple, he just wasn’t missing anything. He flat out crushed the ball today and Ancic didn’t have a clue how to stop Rafa.
This is the kind of tennis we love seeing Rafa play. Lots of winners, and very few unforced errors. It doesn’t matter if Rafa faces Querrey or Isner next, because I know he’s got the confidence right now to beat either one of them. Ladies and Gentlemen, please give it up for Rafa, because he was just BRILLIANT……..flat out BRILLIANT!!
Vamos Rafa!
I agree that Rafa was great today! Was only able to watch part of the match, was at office, but what I saw, I loved! I really think he’s back! I did see the last set of Federer and thought he’s really lacking so was Djoko…so…let’s give our boy all our good thoughts and strength and he can go all the way! One game at a time, y vamos a ganar!
Miri, I’m following you on twitter – is there a way I can send you messages? or ask u questions?
I would say he played quite well .. The least, is that we are surely & persistently out of the struggling with non-seeded players and depending on the opponents error phase, that followed his first return, for quite sometime now ..
Also out of the “oh, he is playing a top ten-er he ll probably lose” phase too .. I now share with him, the “I have my chances against anybody” attitude ..
The for-sure return for me remains, when he beats a healthy playing well top five player … Vamos !!
Nadal played great. I know Mario Ancic isn’t exactly top competition these days, but still, the way Nadal played showed glimpses of the Nadal of old, probably more so than in the AO. Now, about those pants…
Although yes, Mario didn’t play well at all, Rafa looked f-ing amazing and completely focused all the way through. Vamos!!!