Vamos Delhi, Rafael Nadal is here

NEW DELHI: The Indira Gandhi indoor stadium might not have been packed to the rafters but it was loud and raucous the minute Rafael Nadal stepped on to the court. The 14-time Grand Slam champion is this year's prize catch for the Indian Aces and arrived to a thunderous welcome from the Delhi crowd.
The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) title holders played like true champions in their first match in front of their home-crowd in the second season.The Aces fed off the Delhi crowd's energy to completely blow away the Philippine Mavericks 30-12 in the second match on Thursday.
Nadal made a thrilling singles debut against Frenchman Eduoard Roger-Vasselin of the Mavericks. Roger-Vasselin, ranked 123rd in the world, doesn't often get the chance to slug it out against the likes of Nadal, but he put up a brave fight after slipping to 1-4 early in the set.
Doubles specialist Roger-Vasselin got one break back to close in but the point of the day came at 40-40 with Nadal serving at 4-3. A complete mis-hit from Nadal landed in the middle of the court with Roger-Vasselin coming in behind the ball but Nadal produced a sizzling backhand down the line winner which just sizzled past his bewildered opponent. Nadal held his serve rest of the way to win 6-4.
"I made a great start in the match but it got tough in the middle. The crowd support was simply fantastic and I couldn't have hoped for a better welcome to India. I hope they come back for the next two days as well to support us," Nadal said after the win.
Delhiites got the first taste of Nadal in the fourth set of the match when he doubled up with Rohan Bopanna for the men's doubles match against Mavericks' Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Treat Huey .
It was doubles-specialist Bopanna who did most of the running in the match understandably but Nadal's touch at the net was refreshing.Huey-Vasselin put up a brief fight but couldn't stop Bopanna-Nadal from winning 6-4 with deafening 'Rafa, Rafa' cheers ringing through the arena.
World's No 1 women's doubles player Sania Mirza, who drew the second-largest cheer of the day after Rafa, stepped on the court first with Rohan Bopanna and the pair were too hot to handle for Mavericks pairing of Alja Tomljanovic and Treat Huey.
They took just 22 minutes to breeze through the first set 6-2. World no. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, fresh from her triumph in the WTA year-ending championships, made her IPTL debut for the Aces in emphatic fashion --taking just 17 minutes to hammer Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1.
The signs were already ominous with the scoreboard reading 12-3 after the first two sets. The Aces captain Fabrice Santoro, dubbed the 'magician' by his teammates, then opened his bag of tricks and Mavericks' Mark Phillippousis was mesmerised. Aussie Phillippousis, known as the `Scud' in his heydays, came on court without his tracking mechanisms in place, as he served at a dismal 40% to go down 6-1.
The Aces next face Japan Warrior in the second match of the day on Friday evening.