[@Sweet Cleopatra]

He needs to win Miami. Vamos Rafa :bounce:

 

[sexybeast]

Re: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

It was a horrible match. From both players.

 

[BroTree123]

Re: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

Easy. Sexy was godawful though.

 

[Orka_n]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

You need to add tournament and round to the title.

And this was a terrible match.

 

[sexybeast]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

You know you are a tennis fanatic when you sit through these kind of matches, kind of masochistic tendency really.

 

[Luinir]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

very bad match. rafa hit few great shots and that was it. hopefully plays better against kei.

 

[viruzzz]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

IMO it was a bad match from Stepy, so many errors and giving Rafa the chances to hit winners.
But, I think Rafa played a good match, not great, but good.

 

[Lopez]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

Stepanek started brightly but couldn't keep up.

Nadal will go far here I think. Don't think he'll win though.

 

[zlaja777]

Re: Miami tour round 4: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

Awful match. Routine job.

 

[Sunset of Age]

The level of play in this match went from 'mediocre-to-okay' at the first couple of games to absolute garbage towards the end. From BOTH.

Stepanek has no weapons to hurt any top player on this kind of surface, but that doesn't mean he should have started acting like a total clown once he ran out of steam - after a game or 4, 5.
And Rafa? Well there wasn't much he needed to do today, and apart from a few vintage passing banana shots (always a pleasure to see!), not impressive at all. Quite a lot of UEs as well. Will have to raise his level of play to win here, that's for sure.

 

[emotion]

horrible

 

[MuzzahLovah]

Glad I turn it off after Nadal saved that break point.

 

[Ben.]

Steps let Rafa get away with the bare minimum today, will need to improve a lot to get by Nishikori and Tsonga/Isner.

 

[SerialKillerToBe]

Ugh. I hate this Justin Gimeldouche. "Rafa is en fuego" :facepalm:

 

[MIMIC]

That was an awful match.

 

[lucyfur]

Ugh. I hate this Justin Gimeldouche. "Rafa is en fuego" :facepalm:

Gimbeldouche is the biggest Rafa fanboy ever, according to him everything Rafa does is THEE MOSST BRILLIANT thing EVEERRR in the history of the sport.

 

[Arkulari]

Someone has to tell American commentators that the phrase "en fuego" makes absolutely NO sense in Spanish

Rafa was ok during this match, made some really nice shots (although it is REALLY easy to pass Stepanek) but this isn't his best level, I hope he continues saving energy since he's competing in both singles and doubles.

Sexy has no weapons to hurt anyone in this surface and made some really clownish mistakes at times, but I attribute that mainly to the fact that he's nowhere the player Rafa is and besides he has no real weapons to hurt anyone (as much praise as his volleys get, most of those were atrocious, specially the drive ones which landed just in Rafa's comfort zone).

 

[norwood_10]

Shite match. Dunno why Miami fans bother, they see shite tennis every year.

 

[fmolinari2005]

Re: Miami tour: Rafa beats Stepanek 6.2 6.2

You need to add tournament and round to the title.

And this was a terrible match.

Goes without saying when you read Rafa on the OP.

On a less hater note, I always struggle to understand what is a bad match from Rafa. More often than not the quality of his matches depends on the opponent. One of the great qualities of Nadal is having a very reliable "standard" game. And you can bet your house on a Nadal's victory when the match boils down to who is playing less crappy. Except when the opponent is Nole ...

 

[Johnny Groove]

Anytime Rafa wins a match in less than 90 minutes, it is a good thing.

Moving right along.