27th of March

Rafa Nadal and Marc Lopez have had a successful debut in Key Biscayne after beating another Spanish couple made up by Albert Montañés and Tommy Robredo, 6-2. 7-6, in an hour and a half of play in the first round of doubles of the second Master Series event of the season in Miami.

The world number one has captivated the attention of the Florida crowd since his arrival at the beginning of this week and is now preparing himself for his singles debut tomorrow against Teimuras Gabashvili, who he has never played against before.

The Russian, came out as the winner of the match against Simon Bolleli in the first round of the American tournament, where he has reached the second round once before. He's 23 years old and is ranked 72 in the world, (reaching as high as 59 at the beginning of this year).

The match is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 28th of March at 8:00pm (local time) in the main Stadium. It is the first time that Rafa appears as the number 1 seed of the Miami tournament, which means there is a though road ahead of him. Players like Ivo Karlovic, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano López, Fernando Gonzáles, Richard Gasquet - amongst others - will be waiting for him.

The Australian Open champ has also been real busy promoting the event, where two days ago he participated with Ana Ivanovic in a mini-golf competition and yesterday he attended the players party together with his tennis friends:Novak Djokovic and Marc Lopez. 

On an interesting note, uncle Toni has arrived in Miami, (where he hasn't been for the last two years), and has already begun training with his nephew (ahead of tomorrow's second round clash with Teimuras) with the hope that this year Rafa can win the title that he has been so close to winning in 2005, against Roger Federer, and in 2008, against Nikolay Davydenko.

Vamos Rafa!