Grass getting greener for Nadal

WIMBLEDON NEWS:RAFAEL NADAL stepped on to Centre Court yesterday as comfortable as any man who hopes to meet and beat Roger Federer in 12 days' time.

Three days of golf, tuna fishing and his mother's home cooking back home in Mallorca evidently settled the 22-year-old as he, as Federer did on Monday, took his first few steps on Centre Court without a stutter or lapse.

The superlatives were engaged once more as Nadal played his usual exaggerated game, where incomparable shots peppered just about every exchange. The general view was that as first-round matches go Nadal looked comfortable, was getting a feel for the court, the surrounds, the perspectives and appeared relaxed.

But Nadal is never relaxed on court. He never looks it. He never pretends he is. And he never plays with anything less than a fixed intensity that at best is expressed in a weak, perplexed-looking smile but often reveals itself in a scowl. Blinkered in what he must do and focused on how he must go about doing it, Nadal is as tightly wired as any player that has history here and wants to make history here.

Nadal has never lost in the first round of Wimbledon. As a 17-year-old in 2003 he became the youngest player to reach the third round since 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984.

Given Nadal is considered a clay-court operator and Becker a traditional grass-court master, it was a significant marker for the Spaniard to put down.

Although his opponent yesterday, Andreas Beck, a 22-year-old qualifier from Ravensburg, Germany, who is ranked 122 in the world and was making his Grand Slam debut, managed to ramp up his game in the third set, he was champion fodder. Not once in 17 games did Nadal offer Beck a break point on his serve. Instead the Spaniard won 88 per cent of all the points off his first serve.

"Well, today I served well. My second record in aces. I had 18 two years ago against (Andre) Agassi here and today 17. So happy with my serve," he said afterwards. "I have improved because I am young and I have to improve. I practise every day, every month. My goal is always to be a better player. It is important to have a good serve every place, maybe clay less so but on grass very, very important."

Just two service breaks in the opening sets and a tiebreak in the third decided the match as Nadal was in control throughout. Beck dutifully gave him a decent workout before the number two seed meets the talented Latvian Ernests Gulbis in round two.

Gulbis has a big serve and an unforgiving forehand. He also plays very aggressively and without fear and like Nadal is young and improving.

For the second seed, though, it is too soon for him to say whether he has become a better grass-court player over the 12 months since he lost to Federer in last year's tight final.

The inferences from his win at the Queen's Club, the first time a player has moved without a hiccup from clay (in Paris) to grass since Bjorn Borg did it in 1980, are that Nadal has become a greater threat to the Swiss player's dominance.

"I don't know. I really don't know," he said, throwing his hands in the air. "Everyone asks me. Last two years I made the final at Wimbledon so it is very difficult to say. But I don't know If I am a better player on grass or not. But in general yes."

"In general" was good enough to humiliate Federer in the final at Roland Garros.