Open champ Nadal in vulnerable position

Thursday's U.S. Open draw ceremony reinforced the obvious: that all the palace intrigue in tennis is on the men's side. In particular, what is Rafael Nadal's state of mind only a year after he won his first Open and thrust himself into the conversation of "greatest ever"?

Among the women, Serena Williams' building momentum -- her tip-top fitness and eagerness after missing a year of competition -- is such that the sport's experts have declared her the heavy favorite in spite of a No. 28 seed. When Williams' name was drawn for a likely third-round match against No. 4 Victoria Azarenka, old champ John McEnroe's reaction was "poor, poor, poor Azarenka."

Williams appears set for a burn-down-everything march to a final. Perhaps against co-favorite Maria Sharapova, the No. 3 seed, since almost nobody expects Williams to have trouble along the way in a possible quarterfinal duel with No. 7 Francesca Schiavone and semifinal against No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki.

Theoretically, Williams could meet her sister Venus, unseeded and with almost no match play this year, in the final, because Venus is in the other half of the draw. Far more likely opponents would be Sharapova or No. 5 Petra Kvitova, the reigning Wimbledon champ.

Among the men, though, there is the dynamic involving Novak Djokovic's rollicking year, in which he has won 57 of 59 matches, two major titles and is 8-1 vs. the two most recent No. 1s, Nadal and Roger Federer. No. 4 Andy Murray is also lurking.

"The game, for me, has changed for both Federer and Nadal with Djokovic," said Cliff Drysdale, a top pro from the 1960s and early 1970s with a long career as tennis commentator. "It's unbelievable to me how Djokovic has changed the mix of the whole field because, when someone makes the kind of move he's made, it has an effect in the locker room.

"Because the rest of the field now takes a look at Federer and Nadal, and they see those two in a different light, and they see they're beatable."

Drysdale, furthermore, referred to some feelings revealed by Nadal in his new book, "Rafa" [written with journalist John Carlin], in which Nadal speaks of "doubts and fears." Nadal called it a "permanent battle to fight back your every-day vulnerabilities, bottle up your human feelings" during matches to play effectively.

After his loss to Djokovic in this year's Wimbledon final, a humbled Nadal spoke of how Djokovic was in "the best moment of his career. I am in one of the best moments of my career. Still, not enough for him."

During a brief appearance at Thursday's draw, designed specifically for ESPN (Nadal declined interviews afterward), Nadal spoke vaguely about not playing well this summer. The fingers on his right hand (he plays lefthanded) are healing after he burned them badly on a hot plate before his tournament in Cincinnati last week, and he assured he is "going to take care of that."