28th of October

Alongside his good friend the Argentine Juan Monaco, the world number one, Rafa Nadal beat the locals Nicolas Mahut and Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4 Tuesday, in the first round of the doubles tournament in Paris.

Their next doubles oponents will be Bhupathi and Knowles (The No. 3 seeds).

In other news, Rafa admitted Tuesday that he is at the limit of his own strength as he approaches the end of the tennis season, in which he is still to tackle the challenges of winning his first-ever Masters Cup and the final of the Davis Cup

'I am a little bit at the limit, I am a bit short of strength,' Rafa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Spaniard was set to make his debut Wednesday at the Paris Masters - the season's last Masters Series tournament - against Frenchman Florent Serra.

'We are in a very bad state,' Rafa's uncle and coach Toni Nadal told dpa.

'It is the last effort, I hope to be able to get to the rest of it better prepared,' the tennis player said.

Rafa, 22, noted that he feels worse than he did precisely 12 months earlier.

Following a total of 90 matches - with 80 wins and 10 defeats - Rafa can be proud of a season in which he lifted eight trophies including those at the French Open and Wimbledon, and the Olympic gold medal in Beijing.