Rafa Nadal moved a step closer toward his first title of the season by defeating Nicolas Kiefer 6-2 6-4 in the third round at the Sony Ericsson Open.

After receiving a first-round bye, the second-seeded Rafa posted his second consecutive straight-sets victory after defeating qualifier Benjamin Becker in the second round.

"Well, it was not the best day (with the rain) because I was playing unbelievable in the beginning, you know, playing very well, hitting very well the ball, and playing almost perfect match." Rafa said.

"So I was very happy about my victory. "When I came back to the court the ball was a little bigger and slower, and it was a little bit more difficult for me.Anyway, I feel I played a very complete match."

Next up for Rafa is Paul-Henri Mathieu,who ousted Carlos Moya of Spain 7-6 (7/1) 7-5. "I played against him some time before and they were always very, very tough matches," Rafa said of Mathieu.

"I know he's playing well. He's doing well. He won against Moya today." Ranked second in the world since July 2005, Rafa is playing in his 12th tournament since his last title at Stuttgart in July.

Spanish tennis player Rafal Nadal reached the third round of the Masters Series Miami, the second of the season, after defeating German Benjamin Becker in straight sets (7-5, 6-2).

Becker was able to put up a fight in the first set thanks to his great serve, but collapsed after that, enabling Rafa to move on to the third round where German Nicolas Keifer, who defeated Finn Jarkko Nieminen, awaits him.

The Majorcan also saw his future in the tournament partly cleared by the surprising defeat of Serbian Novak Djokovic, world nº3, who beat him in Indian Wells.The Serb, who hypothetically could have been the Spaniard's semi-final opponent, was knocked out in three sets by the South African Kevin Anderson (7-6(1), 3-6, 6-4).

At the start, Rafa also found himself being challenged by Becker, a qualifier who had defeated Guillermo Garcia-López in R1. The German broke him in his first service game and went ahead 2-0, but Rafa quickly reined him in by breaking back immediately in the next game

From then on both held serve until the eleventh game, when Rafa imposed his superiority and broke Becker for a second time, which meant he could then serve for the set. He served out the set to win 7-5 and there the match ended because the resistance the German had been putting up did not continue into the second set.

Rafa broke his opponent's serve at the outset, went 3-0 up, and there was no stopping him taking the match 7-5, 6-2.

To mark the forthcoming Sony Ericsson Open, which starts tomorrow, the tournament celebrated by hosting the world’s first ever game of tennis on water.

Two of the world's leading tennis players, Serena Williams and Rafal Nadal, took to a custom-made court to try their luck on a more challenging surface than usual, completing a seemingly impossible task more befitting a miracle than to a modern day tennis tournament.

The revolutionary game took place at the top of the new Gansevoort South Hotel as it officially opened its doors for the first time. The water-covered court was constructed in the 110ft swimming pool set in the Gansevoort's exclusive 22,000sqft rooftop retreat overlooking Miami's South Beach.

The court took seven days to build as a specialist underwater team constructed two invisible platforms at either end of the pool for the players to stand and play using a combination of bespoke acrylic sheets and supporting acrylic tubes that were bonded together. The pool was then filled with water before adding the finishing touches of a net and Sony Ericsson Open ball girls and boys.

The Sony Ericsson Open is the World's fifth largest tournament and the only 12-day tennis event on the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendars. The event, which takes place from 26th March – 6th April features all of the world's top-ranked men and women players.

Defending Sony Ericsson Open Champion, Serena Williams, commented: 'It was a once in a lifetime chance to play tennis on water and it was great to be involved in a true world first. Playing against Rafa was a new challenge, but I think the surface helped to level the playing field - particularly as he volunteered to play at the deep end!'

Rafa Nadal commented: "I love playing on ALL surfaces, but this was different and playing against Serena made it even more special. Playing a game on water was a first for me, and I also liked the setting here in Miami overlooking the ocean since I love the sea."

Dee Dutta, Corporate Vice President and Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications added: 'We've pioneered a few World firsts - Night Tennis at the Sony Ericsson Open last year, tennis on a football pitch at Real Madrid CF at the Sony Ericsson Championships, and now a game of tennis on water. With this amazing game we hope we have created excitement around the world ahead of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic ousted defending champion Rafa Nadal in straight sets to reach the final of the Pacific Life Open.

Djokovic dropped just five games as he avenged last year's Pacific Life final defeat to Rafa Nadal. Djokovic, the third seed, defeated second-seeded 6-3 6-2, turning the tables on the man who beat him in the final of this Masters Series tournament last year.

Djokovic gained the upper hand in the second set with a service break in the fifth game as Rafa knocked a forehand wide. He broke again in the seventh game and took the match after an hour and 27 minutes when Nadal dumped a service return into the net.

After an early exchange of breaks in the opening set, Djokovic earned the key break in the eighth game -- with a little help from the net cord on break point. Between sets, Rafa received treatment on court for a troublesome toe.

Djokovic now awaits the winner of the second semifinal, unseeded American Mardy Fish.

Rafa Nadalkept his Pacific Life Open title defense on track Thursday with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 quarter-final victory over American James Blake.

Rafa, the second seed, earned his first victory over Blake in four career meetings. He booked a semi-final showdown with Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who defeated 35th ranked Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.

Rafa beat Djokovic in the final of this 5.7 million-dollar WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament last year. Rafa had been thwarted by Blake in all three of their previous meetings, the last at the Tennis Masters Cup in 2006, when he dropped a second-set tiebreaker 7-0. This time around, Rafa earned the lone break of the third set in the eighth game to take 5-3 lead, pouncing remorselessly on Blake's second serves.

"I thought if I have the chance with the second serve in that game, I was going to play aggressive," Rafa said. "I was going to try to do the winner with the forehand."

Rafa served out the match to love, firing his sixth ace of the contest on match point and dropping to his knees in celebration. He said his reaction reflected the cumulative emotion of the win over James, and his narrow fourth-round victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Rafa trailed 2-5 in the third set in that match on Wednesday and held on for the victory. "The thing is not beating James, the thing is being in the semi-finals and beating two big players like Tsonga and Blake," Rafa said.

"For me, it was two very important matches." Rafa said he knew Blake would display his characteristic aggressive style, and sure enough the American used it to control the second set. Blake broke in the second game and never surrendered the advantage, but Rafa said he never felt the momentum had swung too far from him.

The pair had traded breaks in the first set before Rafa seized the decisive break in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead.

Rafa fended off three break points in the next game to pocket the set. "I figured it was going to come down to who's going to play a couple of big points better," Blake said. "I didn't do enough to hurt him on the big points".

Fourth round ATP action at the 2008 Pacific Life Open lived up to its blockbuster billing, Wednesday in Indian Wells, highlighted by an epic battle between defending champion Rafa Nadal and fast-rising Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The two previous meetings between the fiery crowd-pleasers had been one-sided decisions – Rafa won in straight sets at last year’s US Open and Tsonga shocked the World No. 2 in the Aussie Open semifinals – but Wednesday’s match proved a much more competitive display.

The two players exchanged breaks of serve to begin the first two sets, and each pulled through in a tie-break to send the match to a third set decider. Tsonga appeared on the brink of eliminating Rafa once again, breaking the Spaniard to go up 4-2, but then faltered as he served for the win at 5-3.

His forehand return missed wide on Rafa’s break point chance to put the match back on serve, and then Tsonga dropped serve again two games later; he double faulted at deuce and then committed another forehand error.

Rafa served out to love, prevailing 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-5 in just over three hours. “I always try to fight every point. I was a little bit lucky because losing 5-2 in the third – especially against big server like Tsonga – the normal thing is to lose 6-3,” said Rafa.

“I had a tough first point in 5-3; finally I won this point, and that gave me confidence. “It was so important for me to have this victory... A victory like this is always special and gives me confidence.

"I will be better.” Tsonga, who was making his debut in Indian Wells, also expressed the high value placed on his rematch with Rafa: “It was a very important match for me because I would like to show everybody my run in Australian Open was not lucky. I want to prove to everybody I can play at this level, so I'm disappointed about this.”

Rafa will need to defeat American James Blake for the first time to keep on track for the title defense. Blake holds a 3-0 lifetime record against the 21-year-old, including a win in the 2006 Indian Wells semifinals. World No. 9 Blake convincingly defeated No. 8 Richard Gasquet of France, 6-4, 6-2 to secure his place in the quarterfinals.

American teen Donald Young was the youngest player remaining in the Pacific Life Open at 18 years and seven months old.

His opponent Monday, Rafa Nadal, is also young and both players are left-handed, but that's where the similarities end. Young was no match for Nadal who rolled to a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

"Growing up, I played with lefties all the time, but lately I have not been playing with lefties much," said Young. "It's different, different spin. They hit it the way you hit it. "It's like playing myself and I wouldn't want to play myself."

Nadal said he thought Young may have some nerves at the start of the match. "I didn't play my best tennis", said Rafa, who will face Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round, a rematch of the Australian Open semifinal.

"But I didn't play bad. I think the start (Young was) very nervous, you see the score, 4-0. "I think he is young. I know if I start the match well and have some distance on the score, it's difficult".

Young admitted stepping onto Stadium Court here for the first time and playing the No. 2 player in the world was daunting. "It's not the first time I've played in front of a lot of people, but the first time I played No. 2 in the world", he said.

"In the second set, I felt I played a little better. I felt I had a couple of chances, but got a little overanxious and missed a shot."

Monday's third-round matchup between French countrymen Paul-Henri Matthieu and Tsonga was a battle between the No. 2 and No. 3 players in France. Richard Gasquet is the country's top player, seeded eighth here.

Gasquet topped Juan Ignacio Chela earlier in the day, 6-2, 6-1 Tsonga, the Australian Open finalist, took the first set 7-6 (5) and after battling through 2-2, then 4-4, he took the second, 6-4, threw his arms up and jumped around court to celebrate.

Defending champion Rafa Nadal kicked off his title defence at the Pacific Life Open on Saturday with a 6-3 6-3 victory against qualifier Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.

The second-seeded Spaniard won the first of his six titles last season at Indian Wells with victory over Serbia's Novak Djokovic and will take his next step to opening his 2008 account in the third round against American Donald Young, who defeated 32nd seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain, 6-4 6-7 (3/7) 6-2.

Rafa, 21, is hoping to keep the pressure on world number one Roger Federer at the top of the world rankings after moving to within 350 points of the Swiss ace. Federer opens his challenge against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Sunday.

"I am very happy being back at Indian Wells and I have very nice memories from last year," Rafa said after the match. "This court is always very special for me" "Today I win, that's it, I can't do too much," he said.

Andy Roddick did not appear to be missing the services of a coach during his 7-6 6-2 quarter-final victory over Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal in the Dubai Championships on Thursday.

The sixth-seeded American, who said he had parted ways with his coach Jimmy Connors, will next face third seed Novak Djokovic after the Serbian swept aside Russia's Igor Andreev 6-2 6-1.

Roddick placed Rafa under pressure from the start, holding serve with the first of his 17 aces and then forced Rafa to save four break points to level at 1-1. With both players refusing to cave in and saving numerous break points, the set headed into a tiebreak. Rafa swiftly took a 3-0 lead but Roddick fired two successive aces to keep pace and eventually claimed it 7-5.

"I felt I was getting the best of him throughout the set, and then all of a sudden I'm down 3-0 in the tiebreaker pretty quick and that was a little discouraging", said Roddick.

Roddick surprisingly faced little resistance in the second. Rafa began to make far more errors and after Roddick broke twice to lead 4-1. A 241 kph ace set up match point and he closed it with yet another ace. "It's a fast court, the crowd was really into it and the atmosphere was great. I wasn't going to get better conditions for myself against Rafa. I knew that and tried to take advantage," said the former world number one.

Rafa admitted that Roddick's powerful serve had put his own game under pressure. "You feel a lot of pressure when you are serving because if you lose any serve, the way he was serving tonight it's tough," said Nadal. "But in a way I am not disappointed with my game tonight. I didn't play badly."

IN OTHER NEWS: Rafa as a person, not the tennis player.

Rafael Nadal Perera or ‘Rafa’ as his father calls him, continues to be the same kind of person we have been seeing for the past years here. Full commitment to the game win or lose, his on court aggression and fist pumping reactions in tense situations come out of sheer involvement on a personal level.

Crowds go to the stadia all over the world to see his powerful yet entertaining game, and court reactions which are not vulgar or arrogant. In fact he reminds us of a Red Indian warrior in fill cry with his long hair, tied head band, long Bermuda style shorts and short sleeves tee-shirt.

Off the court, he is one of the easiest persons to talk to and is not afraid to express himself freely on any subject and neither does he deliberate before talking. The impression that we have about him not being an ŒI’ specialist, holds good every time we run into him. Rafael in short, is an individual without any pretensions.

The only player anywhere near the standard to push Roger Federer hard today is this 21-year-old Spaniard who loves his home town of Manacor on Mallorca island, a place he never forgets to mention in a conversation of some length. On Tuesday, he was full of praise for Federer whose first round defeat, Nadal reckons is only human. “Remember, Roger has been so consistent for so many weeks for so many years, we cannot come to any conclusion about his decline.

“Just wait, Roger who had no big events after the Australian Open, will recover in a week’s time before he goes for titles again,” said Rafa, “he has a strong personality and is a wonderful player on the Tour.” Rafael continued, “We are all vulnerable and one has to be to a certain extend, otherwise we will never learn and live life better.”

“From each experience we have to learn and learn very fast, otherwise on a circuit like the one we have today, we cannot survive at whatever levels we are in,” said the world number two for the past two years. “It was a tough match,” said Rafael after his win against German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday.

“I didn’t play my best, that’s true, but it’s not easy playing here. Every player is a big player in one of the toughest draws on the tour for sure. I was coming without my best confidence because I had a strange loss in Rotterdam, he added. It’s important coming back, winning a match like this. Starting the match 2-0, then losing the first set and five games in a row. Luckily I was 100 per cent mentally into the situation, otherwise it would have been even tougher. Maybe I didn’t play the best tennis, but mentally I was very positive and fighting for every point".

RAFA NADAL roared back into form blowing away unknown Russian Mikhail Ledovskikh 6-4, 6-0 and served notice of his intent to reclaim the title he won two years ago.

The 2006 Dubai champion played his baseline game with an unerring precision and will surely have caught the attention of the other big guns at the Aviation Club. Rafa was a bit out of touch in the first round against the big-serving German Philipp Kohlschreiber. But on centre court yesterday, the world No.2 dominated from start to finish and is now gaining momentum as the championship moves towards the business end of the week.

He broke the world No.171 in the ninth game and won every game from there. And the Spaniard was in bullish mood ahead of today’s quarter-finals. “I finished the match with a lot of confidence. I am hitting the ball better with the forehand and with the backhand a little bit better too. I am seeing the ball better so I’m happy about that,” he said.

And then continued. “I was pleased with my serve today - it was very good for me,” added the Spaniard.