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2010 U.S. Open: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Mardy Fish advance to second round

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NEW YORK — For all of Rafael Nadal’s considerable talents with a racket in hand, the part of his game that is most often been criticized — by himself and others — is his serve.

That is quickly changing.

Serving at up to 131 mph and saving the only break point he faced, Nadal began his bid to complete a career Grand Slam at this year’s U.S. Open by beating 93rd-ranked Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round Tuesday night.

“My serve worked well. Hopefully, I’ll continue like this,” Nadal said. “My serve is not my ideal shot, but I always try hard to keep improving. I know if I want to have chances to win here — not just this year, but any year — I need to serve really well.”

Asked if he is been focusing on making his serve better this summer, Nadal replied with a smile: “All my life, I worked on my serve. Not this summer, no; all my life.”

In Tuesday’s match, there were zero breaks of serve until 3-all in the third set, and the No. 1-seeded Nadal broke there when Gabashvili put a forehand into the net. Nadal threw his head back and yelled, “Si!”

The 24-year-old Spaniard broke serve again to end the match, closing with a three-game run.

While it was a straight-set victory, it was not necessarily simple for Nadal. He failed to convert any of his first seven break points and had to weather 49 winners from the big-hitting Gabashvili, 19 more than Nadal produced.

“I had a difficult match,” Nadal acknowledged, “but I think I did play well.”

The match lasted almost three hours and, because it began late after three lengthy contests preceded it in Arthur Ashe Stadium, they did not finish until 11:32 p.m.

The result extended Nadal’s Grand Slam winning streak to 15 matches, after his titles at the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July. He owns eight major championships but has yet to make it past the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, losing at that stage each of the past two years.

Nadal hopes to become the seventh man in tennis history with at least one title from each of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Gabashvili, meanwhile, has lost in the first round of the U.S. Open two consecutive years. His ideal showing at a major tournament came at Roland Garros this season, when he upset Andy Roddick en route to the fourth round.

In the second round, Nadal will face 39th-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina 7-5, 7-5, 6-1 earlier Tuesday.

Might Nadal hit serves even faster against Istomin than he did against Gabashvili?

“Wait,” Nadal said, grinning to make sure everyone knew he was kidding. “Wait for the next one. going for 135.”

Earlier, Novak Djokovic fought off the stifling heat and one of his Davis Cup teammates in a harder-than-expected first-round win. The third-seeded Serb beat countryman Viktor Troicki 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a 3-hour, 40-minute match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where temperatures reached the upper 90s on one of the hottest days in recent memory at Flushing Meadows.

Both players were wobbling around the court by the time the match was over and shade enveloped the court, offering a bit of relief on a day when the extreme heat rules went into effect for the women — allowing them a 10-minute break if they split sets — but the men were given no such reprieve.

Djokovic, who has a reputation of struggling in the hottest conditions, trailed 2-1 in sets and was down a break in the fourth but came back. He got an early break in the fifth and served it out.

“Somebody from the stands kept saying to me, ‘Hold on, try to hang in there,’ and that is exactly what I did,” Djokovic said.

American Mardy Fish also needed five sets to advance to the second round, beating Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.

Fish is seeded 19th and is one of only seven Americans ranked in the top 100. He joins Taylor Dent, James Blake and ninth-seeded Roddick in the second round, with John Isner, Sam Querrey and Donald Young still waiting for their first-round matches.

Complete results

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Fish lost to Roger Federer in the final of the Cincinnati Masters two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, he served 24 aces and needed only 20 minutes to win the first set. Then after losing the next two sets, he won the last two in just 51 minutes.

Blake advanced with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win over Kristof Vliegen of Belgium.

Vliegen is ranked 321st but got in on a protected ranking. He missed the second half of 2009 because of illness and injury.

Blake had lost his previous two meetings with Vliegen, though both were back in 2006. The 30-year-old Blake has dropped to 108th in the rankings and got in on a wild card. He hasn’t lost in the first round at the Open since his debut in 1999.

“Really just happy to get through and hopefully put as tiny stress on my body as possible since it’s getting older and there is plenty of miles on it these days,” he said.

Asked a question about Andre Agassi, Blake got to reminiscing about their five-set classic in the 2005 quarterfinals — when Agassi was 35.

“You know,” Blake stated wistfully, “there’s a chance I still could be playing in four or five more years.”

On Monday night he was honored for overcoming adversity to inspire others. He’ll keep doing so from the court in the second round when he faces 205th-ranked qualifier Peter Polansky of Canada, who knocked off 30th-seeded Juan Monaco.

“I do not think I want to put it all into perspective quite yet, because I think I’ve got more career left in me, more good tennis,” Blake said. “I’m looking forward to that. Then when I’m done, I really hope I can sit back and really be proud.”

Earlier, Arnaud Clement upset 16th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the first round.

The 68th-ranked Clement is a former top-10 player who reached the 2001 Australian Open final. But he had not defeated anyone ranked in the top 20 at a Grand Slam tournament in eight years.

Baghdatis was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open, was ranked as high as No. 8 that year and had won his most recent four matchups against Clement. But Baghdatis has never made it past the second round at Flushing Meadows.

In other action, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez advanced with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Santiago Giraldo. Jeremy Chardy beat No. 24 Ernests Gulbis 6-2, 7-6 (1), 6-4, and Julien Benneteau beat No. 28 Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

In addition to putting extreme heat rules in effect for the women, tournament officials shortened the stints of ball boys from 2 hours to 90 minutes and were reminding fans to drink plenty of water. Heading into the evening matches, they did not report any heat-related emergencies.

The players were doing their ideal to take it in stride.

“Tell you the truth, OK, it was hot, but, I mean, we play so many matches in the heat, I can’t tell you,” Baghdatis stated when asked if his 3-hour, 27-minute stay in Armstrong Stadium was one of his hottest matches ever. “I can’t rank today’s heat.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Submited at Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 6:00 am on Sports by samantha
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