Rafa draw first blood in 2011

I can hardly remember when was the last time Roger and Rafa met four times in a span of just two months.  Of course, the first came just the end of November 2010 when Roger beat Rafa convincingly in the Barclays ATP Worls Tour Finals to capture his fifth title of the tournament.


Then come December, both champions agreed to play in two exhibition games to raise funds for their respective foundations which was held in their home country Zurich and Madrid.  They split the competition each one winning on their home turf, but the big winner will be the charities they helped raise funds.

Just last week, they met for the fourth time in a non-ATP hosted event in Abu Dhabi.  It was the first match in the year 2011 as the finals was held on the first of January and Rafa prevailed in a tightly contested match 7-6 7-6.

Australian Open is just a few weeks away and Roger would definitely need to up his game to defend his title and stopping the "Rafa Slam" from becoming a reality.  Otherwise, Rafa will surely gain an edge in all of the GOAT talks by achieving what Roger has never done in the past four years of his domination.