I thought Nadal was very, very lucky to get out of this match with a win. If Phau hadn't taken his eye off of the ball on those too easy volleys, the result could have been quite different. Phau had so many break chances throughout the match and just wasn't able to capitalize on them. Very, very close match indeed. Judging from this match, I don't think Nadal is going to win the US Open this year. And I still think a great serve and volleyer like Pete Sampras would destroy Nadal on that court.
LOL yes, I see what wishful thinkings can make to someone.
I was at the stadium and I never felt the match was in danger. Nadal is usually a slow starter and Phau was inspired today but it was obvious that he didn´t have the game to beat Nadal. It was just a matter of Nadal raising his game in a few points or Phau dropping his. It reminded me his first match vs Starace in Beijing.
I guess the break point chances Phau wasted are some kind of hallucination.
Nadal was 2/13 on breakpoints, Phau was 1/3. Phau had many problems to hold serve along the match but could manage to hold most of the times and stretch a couple of sets to the tie-break. If anything Phau was lucky to force a couple of tie-breaks. Straight sets victory for Nadal after wasting many chances so he was forced to play a couple of tie-breaks that were not especially hard. Nadal won 2 Slams this year and he is already the world no.1. The pressure is on others who didn´t live up to expectations this season.