We witnessed a rare type of tennis match in Miami today and let’s take a quick look at the state of the tour before the red clay kicks in.<\/b><\/p>\n
I sat down to watch what precious little broadcast material I could lay my hands on this evening and what did I get, Mr. Rafael Nadal<\/b> and his sacrificial lamb Teimuraz Gabashvili<\/b> at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. I was a bit grumpy about that as it didn\u2019t sound too promising and I stayed grumpy until midway through the fourth game.<\/p>\n
Gaba was already a break down and had just managed to win his first service game when my grumpiness turned to delight. Poor Gaba had been running around like his pants were on fire all match long as Rafa was positively on fire himself. In the second point of that fourth game, Rafa served up a kicker and Gaba sent back two straight high loopers \u2013 mainly in self defense. A few shots later Rafa hit a sharp crosscourt shot that sent Gaba scurrying out of the court to track it down and when he did track it down, he tried to hit a running forehand winner down the line. Instead, he ran his butt all the way to the opposite corner to track down Rafa\u2019s response. All Gaba could do was put up another looper and Rafa tapped the ball lightly into the open court.<\/p>\n