China

Roger was looking youthful and patriotic at the opening ceremony, and sharp against Tursunov. Plenty of shouts of "allez" and some vintage stuff from the backhand side. Rafa struggled a bit more and has a tough second round match against Hewitt.

The NY Times is using Roger's career as a metaphor for how to be eclipsed gracefully (predicting China will surpass the US in medals). Well, it certainly has been graceful, not least from Nadal, who said this the day his rise to #1 became inevitable:

“I never saw anybody play better than him. For sure, he’s going to continue to have a lot of chances to continue to be No. 1 and win Grand Slams. Roger is having a good season, but in the last four years, he did some unbelievable things. I think he’s going to be the favorite for the Olympics and the U.S. Open."

Roger is coming around to Rafa's way of thinking, it seems: “I just think more about, you know, being at the top for a long time. I mean, at the top doesn’t mean No. 1 in the world. It can mean deep into Grand Slams, being in the top five, top 10 for, whatever, 10 years, 15 years, just be up there and having a shot at Grand Slams.