CAMELOT FANTASIES

I think he'll do it. He has lost to him lately, but Andy is rounding into form. His recovery was slow but steady. The win over Cilic, as straightforward as it was is bound to give him confidence.

I didn't think Rafa would get to the final by any means. I think the first match was just the adrenaline flowing, but it takes time to get your timing back and know what shot to hit in the right moment. Plus, Rafa had 37 errors which is a lot for him. Still, I thought he looked relatively good considering he's just coming back, and the little fish in the sea always have to have their time in the sun too.

While I feel it was a terrific win over Cilic by Andy, I truly feel it was also the match that did the damage against Nole. I'd have rather liked Andy to get the win over Nole than the recent USO Champion. After all, Nole is very well known for his consistency not to mention the No. 1 player.

As to Rafa, I saw the match. Klizan was a tad more aggressive especially at crucial points and Nadal had trouble chasing those. Klizan is a solid player and believes in himself while Nadal I feel is still a bit slow upon return and as herc said, fitness might still be an issue as he wasn't quick enough around the court as he typically is. He's growing older after all so quickness is the first thing that I believe that goes first albeit not all at once. 

And those 37 errors are very telling of Rafa's confidence. He's a player of confidence first and foremost we all know. Each time he makes an error his confidence goes down a bit and he made 37 of them - very unusual for a player who tends to keep the errors to the minimum, because of the focus being on the balance of confidence/error ratio primarily. Plus the match was just too long for him and Klizan wasn't giving up at all and kept on pounding the ball. I believe it was almost 3 hour long match. But it was also a very good match. I thoroughly enjoyed it because of its high quality. Win or loss - you can't take that away from that match.