Top Three Advance, Rafa's Revenge

Most of the seeded players advanced easily. The top-three picked apart their opponents and got off the court quickly. Fifth-seed Juan Martin del Potro and twelfth-seed Fernando Gonzalez made it through after dropping their first sets. Both rallied and won their matches to advance into the next round.

The seeded casualties were eight-seed Gilles Simon and fifteenth-seed Marin Cilic. Both were victims of qualifiers Mischa Zverev and Juan Monaco respectively. Zverev is officially troublemaker of Rome. If he upsets Federer tomorrow, he will be troublemaker of the year.

Novak Djokovic gave Tommy Robredo drubbing at 6-1 6-1 after 63 minutes of play. Djokovic is definitely back to form, which is bad news for Roger Federer and Andy Murray. His improvement makes the race for number two more up for grabs.

If Djokovic was back to form, then Rafael Nadal was in super-form. He met up with the crotchety, Swede Robin Soderling. The last time these two played, Soderling ended up doing this. Fast-forward two years later, the score looks like this: 6-1 6-0.

Do not tell me Nadal did not remember the Swede’s little episode. This was beyond a beatdown. It was a kneecapping, and the Spaniard took no mercy on Soderling. After his match of shame, I doubt the Swede will be doing Nadal impressions any time soon. This is truly the beauty of Nadal.

(Image: AP)