For a set and a half, Rafa was having a Lukas Rosol moment.  Rosol, for those that don’t pay attention, was the lowly ranked player that upset Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon last year, a loss that sent Rafa to 7 months away from the tour.  Rosol achieved this by belting the ball.  Big serves.  Big groundies.

Daniel Brands is another player in that mold.  Big serve.  Big groundies.  But players like him are unseeded for a reason.  They can’t do it consistently well.  Still, at 6-4, 5-all, Nadal was staring at going down two sets to love for the first time ever on clay.  Then, the cracks began to show as Brands started to miss some, and Rafa upped his aggression.  Rafa took the second set, 7-6.  Then, with a break in each of the third and fourth sets, Rafa swatted away a potentially pesky upset.

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When Berdych looked at his draw, he must have felt it wasn’t his year.  When’s the last time two former French Open semifinalists met in the first round?  Even if Berdych could get past Monfils, a player whose rank has dropped due to injuries, he was likely to face Ernests Gulbus who, oh by the way, upset him in the first round of Wimbledon last year.

Monfils had been struggling winning matches for a few weeks, but then managed a nice breakthrough at Nice and went all the way to the finals before losing to Montanes.  Monfils is known as a flashy player.  He once jumped up, piked his legs feet above the ground, and attempted to hit a shot underneath his legs.  He missed, of course, but he wasn’t far from making it.  So weirdly talented is this Frenchman.

Unlike Tsonga, who is decidedly aggressive, playing big bullying tennis, Monfils is a flashy defender, who likes to stand many meters behind the baseline, while using his exceptional speed to reach balls.  He’s been criticized for not playing more aggressive tennis like his countryman, Tsonga, even though he’s capable of it.  He often waits for errors.  It turns out his defensive skills were rather useful because Berdych was out pounding the ball, hitting maybe 10% faster than the Frenchman, trying to apply pressure.

But Monfils kept staying in long rallies, and would occasionally hit a big down the line backhand.  Monfils played smart, solid tennis, and kept even with Berdych.  He was up two sets to love, but Berdych clawed back to tie the match at 2 sets each.  The two kept even until 5-all when finally Monfils had a good game, marred by Berdych missing a few shots, and Monfils held to seal the upset and Berdych was out early, a victim of a bad draw.

Tomorrow, Djokovic will play his first match.  Temperatures have been chilly, but without rain.  There’s some expectation there will be rain on Wednesday.

Only two other seeds lost.  Juan Monaco lost to Gimeno-Traver.  Granollers lost to Feliciano Lopez.