US Open 2008 Rafael Nadal Win Over Bjorn Phau

Rafael Nadal currently World number one at the US Open vanquished his German opponent Bjorn Phau 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 7-6 (7-4) and got his first-round win at Flushing Meadows. Nadal, 22, needed almost three hours to see off a determined challenge from qualifier Phau in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The Spaniard even double-faulted when serving for the match to hand Phau a break back, and he required a second tie-break to finally wrap things up.

Rafael Nadal goes on to face American Ryler De Heart, ranked 251, who had a surprise 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-4 3-6 6-4 win over Belgian Olivier Rochus.

"To win in three sets is always a good result," said Nadal. "I had some difficult moments, so that's going to help me a little bit to be prepared for the pressure moments. "I played well today when I had the pressure moments."

He added: "I am a little bit tired, yes, but it is the US Open so I have to try my best here. "The problem is playing Toronto, Cincinnati and Beijing, then coming back here. In two weeks, two times, 12 hours' jet lag. "I'm a little bit more tired than I usually am but, at the same time, I must be very happy how I did this year."

There were easy wins for fourth seed David Ferrer, who beat Martin Vassalo Arguello, and seventh seed David Nalbandian, who overcame Marcos Daniel.

But ninth seed James Blake needed five sets to overcome fellow American Donald Young 6-1 3-6 6-1 4-6 6-4.

Blake looked poised to make quick work of Young, leading two sets to one and up 2-0 in the fourth before the left-handler hit back to take the match to a deciding set.

"Donald really picked up his game and really played great toward end of the match," said Blake, who committed 50 unforced errors in the match.

Gael Monfils was an early winner on the first day's play in New York, the Frenchman crushing Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4 6-4 6-1, while 10th seed Stanislas Wawrinka beat Simone Bolelli 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-3.

Jurgen Melzer upset 27th seed Feliciano Lopez 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 2-6 6-4, with Britain's Andy Murray a possible third-round opponent for the Austrian.

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Top Seed Rafael Nadal Aiming A Grand Slam At Us Open

Following his elevation to world number one, Rafael Nadal will be the top seed at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at next week's US Open. Followed by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, with Scot Andy Murray seeded sixth while ex-world number one Lleyton Hewitt has pulled out with injury.

Ana Ivanovic is women's top seed, with Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serena Williams next.

The singles draws for the tournament will be announced on Thursday.

Nadal officially became the new world number one on Monday, ending Federer's record reign of 237 successive weeks. Federer was the top seed at the last 18 majors.

Murray will be looking to overcome his disappointing early exit from the Beijing Olympics and rediscover the form that took him to success at the Cincinnati Masters.

The British number one's best effort in New York was in 2006 when he reached the fourth round.

Hewitt will miss the rest of the season after having arthroscopic surgery on a long-term hip problem.

"Surgery was always the last resort, but unfortunately that's what it came down to," the 27-year-old Australian said.

"I am also shattered that I can't lead the Australian Davis Cup team in Chile (in Santiago from 19-21 September) in our bid to rejoin the world group, and hope that the boys can still come through with a great win.

"I am looking forward to playing again in January in my home country, and using that as a springboard to compete at my best again on the world stage for at least a couple of more years."

The most notable absence on the women's side is world number six and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, who announced earlier this month that she is missing the event to recover from a shoulder injury.

Who Is Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera was born on June 3, 1986 in Manacor, Majorca, Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 since 18 August 2008.

Nadal has won five Grand Slam singles titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal. He captured four consecutive French Opens from 2005 through 2008 and Wimbledon in 2008. He is the only man other than Bjorn Borg to have won four consecutive French Open titles, one of only three men in the open era who won both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same calendar year, only the second male Spaniard to have won Wimbledon, and the only man who entered the Olympics ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.

For much of his career, Nadal has had a rivalry with Roger Federer. He was ranked World No. 2 behind Federer for a record 160 weeks before earning the top spot. Nadal has won 12 of their 18 singles matches, including four of their six Grand Slam finals.

Nadal's tennis success has been especially pronounced on clay courts. Some tennis critics and top players regard Nadal as the greatest clay-court player ever. He has a 22–1 record in clay court tournament finals and is undefeated in over 40 best-of-five-set matches on clay. In each of the last four years, he has won both the French Open and two of the three clay court Masters Series tournaments. He also owns the longest single-surface winning streak in the open era, having won 81 consecutive matches on clay from April 2005 to May 2007.

Family And Early Life
Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Majorca to Sebastián Nadal and Ana María Parera. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel, is a retired professional football player, having played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team. He is an avid supporter of Real Madrid. His other uncle, Toni, himself a professional tennis player, introduced Rafael to tennis as a 3 year-old boy and has been coaching him ever since. Toni has also stated that Rafael had a natural talent playing tennis while preferring to play football. By the time Rafael was five, he was going to the tennis club twice a week to play and at eight years of age, also a promising striker in the local football team, he won the regional tennis championships for under-12s. By the time Rafael was 12 he had won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group and was playing either tennis or football all the time. Then in stepped the third of the three brothers, Rafael's father, Sebastian. He forced Rafael to choose between football and tennis so that his school work would not suffer. When Rafael was 14 years old, the Spanish tennis federation requested that he leave Majorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis progression and training. Rafael's parents and uncles turned down these requests, which resulted in Rafael receiving less financial support to aid his development. Sebastian covered these costs himself. By the age of 16, Rafael was ranked in the world's top 50 players.

While Rafael's upbringing and early years are largely kept private, he has stated growing up his passions were football, tennis, and fishing.

Nadal has been dating María Francesca "Xisca" Perello, also from Majorca, for three years as of 2008.

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