Tough opener in Barcelona

One hour and 56 minutes needed Rafa to win his first Barcelona Open 2014 match against Albert Ramos of Spain in straight sets: 7-6, 6-4.

After the match, Rafa said: "It was a positive victory for me. Obviously I didn't play my best match, but after the defeat in Monte-Carlo, the next match on court was never going to be easy. I am happy with the way I fought and proud of the victory today. The victories are more important when you haven't played well. I feel happy to be through on a tough day for the top seeds.

"Albert played great. I knew it was going to be complicated and I accepted my errors, always fighting for the next points. I suffered but fought hard."

"I need to improve everything. I'm working every day to play more aggressively. I need to find the feeling of being dominant in the points. I feel that sometimes I'm hitting balls from good positions and I'm not able to create the right spaces, to find winners. I need to try and find that for the next match."

Rafa will next face Ivan Dodig of Croatia. On head to head, Rafa leads Dodig: 2-1. Their last match was in 2013 at US Open, where Rafa won in 3 sets: 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.




VAMOS RAFA !!!