Nadal struggles through straight-set win
Rafael Nadal of Spain with taped fingers on the sidelines before the start of play against Andrey Golubev of KAZ during the first round of play at the U.S. Open in Forest Hills. (Aug. 30, 2011) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
One thing about a tennis tournament is that, for the top seeds, there is no circumnavigating those early-round matches against the bottom-feeding pests who are barely visible in the rankings and expected to away quietly.
Last night's 2011 U.S. Open debut for defending champion Rafael Nadal was the latest example, a thoroughly uneven 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 Nadal victory.
Against Russian-born, Italian-trained Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, the second-seeded Nadal needed and hour and 15 minutes just to salvage the second set in a tiebreak, then another 53 minutes for a third-set comeback.
Golubev was serving at 5-3, 40-0 in the second set but squandered seven set points, and twice served for the third set at 5-2 and 5-4. With Golubev going for broke all night -- he committed 59 unforced errors compared to 41 winners, while Nadal's numbers were 18 and 16 -- Nadal couldn't relax until his running forehand winner down the line at last brought down the curtain on Golubev.
Every time Golubev was on the verge of evening the match, Nadal answered, sometimes by a barreling retrieve of a Golubev drop shot, sometimes with a mis-hit that somehow stayed on the court.
The twists and turns had Golubev muttering to himself in Italian as he was steamrolled by Nadal in the second-set tiebreak, 7-1.
Before those histrionics, the day had gone mostly to form for the men. Seeds David Ferrer (No. 5), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (11), Stanislas Wawrinka (14), Fernando Verdasco (19) and Juan Ignacio Chela (24) all won.
The one upset allowed Latvia's Ernests Gulbis to celebrate his 23rd birthday today; Gulbis, ranked 53rd, knocked off No. 16 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who twice was an Open semifinalist, in straight sets.
"In a Grand Slam, I'm really anxious to play, I'm really pumped up, and sometimes it's not so good," Gulbis said. "If you make it here, that's it. You've done something in your life."
Another former Open semifinalist, veteran David Nalbandian of Argentina, defeated wild card Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga., but the other two U.S. men in action -- James Blake and Donald Young -- both won.
Blake, now 31 and climbing to 63rd in the rankings after once being No. 4, knocked off 160th-ranked Dutchman Jesse Huta Galung, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Young, now 22 and hoping to live up to his two junior major-tournament titles, beat Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, ranked 162nd, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. -- With AP
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