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        The more you watch Rafael Nadal the more you get the feel of the unmistakable Spanish flavour in his arsenal. Spain is known for churning out quality players right from the good old days of the '66 Wimbledon champion Manuel Santana.

        After the purist's exit, the mantle fell on the shoulders of southpaw Manuel Orantes and to a lesser extent the pugnacious Juan Gisbert. With his all-round game, Orantes made up for his lack of elegance with his adroit court coverage. He had some very important wins in his career inclusive of a memorable quarterfinal win over a fired-up Australian Colin Dibley.

        Then you had the Sanchezes and Brugueras followed by the tongue-twisting name of Alberto Berasategui. Reminded of the similarities with Orantes - one is talking of the game - Nadal felt the former great played in an different era when he picked a few tournaments and gave his best shot.

        'As a pro, there are valuable ATP points to be garnered having a bearing on the ultimate ranking. The pressure factor is more on the present day players, fighting to stay fit and keep up the consistency week after week. You have to work hard on and off the court meeting the demand.'

        A visibly relieved Nadal predicted a good future for Karan Rastogi, stretched to the limits in the first set yesterday. Was he rattled by the quality of the Indian's returns when he matched him stroke for stroke? To the query from the media, Nadal said nothing happened to disturb his comfort zone.

        Poddar delighted

        Rastogi's coach Sanjay Poddar saw a lot of positives in Karan's uninhibited strokes against the world number two. 'The important thing was in Karan not being rattled by the stature of Nadal. He served hard, was equal in the baseline duel but some variation would have helped. A great learning experience for the youngster which should do well to his confidence. His showing here was notches higher than the recent achievement of the Futures triumph.'

        Poddar, a long-time family friend of Rastogis, has been on the job of coaching and touring with Karan for the last three years. 'The New Year has begun well. With an improved ranking, he has emerged the best bet to keep India's flag flying along with Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj.'

        All is fair

        The evening crowd was still to take position before Paradorn Srichaphan made a quick exit. As if to offset that disappointment, there was a tie-breaker doubles game to keep the gathering in the right spirits. Models Tanya Vakil and Vida Samadzai were inspired by their respective partners (Vijay Amritraj and Stefan Koubek).

        It was no ramp act but used to the audience attention from close quarters, the models were breathing a lot easier. A rare day it must have been to get the hug from their partners even when they failed to get their steps right.