No. 1 on charts and in hearts

Rafael Nadal of Spain played Michael Berrer of Germany in a tennis match in front of nearly 16,000 people in Indian Wells on Sunday. Both are left-handed.

The similarity ended there.

Nadal, you see, is not so much a tennis player as he is a freak of nature. He is No. 1 in the world and it is fair to say the guys on Mars and Venus can't touch him, either.

He beat Berrer, 6-2, 6-1, and it was so one-sided you started to feel bad for Berrer. They should have let him play with a racket and a club.

The men's tennis game of today is one of huge bombers. Almost everyone on the tour hits ground strokes that are rockets. Nadal does that one better. His shots arrive before they have departed. It's like watching laser lights at the carnival.

Fans here for the BNP Paribas Open, and the sprawling Indian Wells Tennis Garden that is its centerpiece, were ready for Nadal's first appearance in this second-round singles match. He had played doubles, but that's like Placido Domingo doing rap.

For several days, he has been hitting on the practice courts, and, almost embarrassingly, there have been times when the crowds gathered to watch him there have outnumbered those in the stadium.

So, shortly after 5:15 p.m., after top-seeded female player Dinara Safina had made more than 50 unforced errors and still won in straight sets, Berrer and Nadal took the court.

The occasionally annoying public address announcer had just sent Safina's vanquished opponent, Shuai Peng, off the court with the same salutation he has for almost all the defeated: "You'll be seeing a lot of her in the future." (Oh? Where?)

He brought Berrer on to a smattering of polite applause.

Then came Nadal, and the place erupted, the tone decidedly female. Despite being a muscular, almost unbeatable animal on the court, Nadal has this teddy-bear image that has attracted groupies in droves.

Nadal won the toss and elected to receive. Normally, serving first is the preference, unless your confidence level is such that you figure you can break serve early and steamroller. Nadal broke serve early and steamrollered.

Berrer, good enough to be No. 112 in the world and not shying away from the action in his first chance at playing Nadal, hit hard and even came to the net in his first service game.

Of course, Nadal almost killed him the first time and passed him with a shrug the second time. Oh, well. A decent try.