New York: Rafael Nadal's first match as defending US Open champion was hardly a tour de force.
He would fall behind in a set, then come back. Fall behind, then come back.
His serve was broken six times — one more than it was in seven matches during his run to the title at Flushing Meadows a year ago. His shots didn't have their normal depth. He needed to save seven set points during the second set.
Locked in a struggle for nearly three hours, the second-seeded Nadal eventually got past 98th-ranked Andrey Golubev 6-3, 7-6 (1), 7-5 on Tuesday night to reach the second round of the US Open.
"Well," Nadal conceded, "I was a little bit lucky to win today in straight sets."
"I didn't have the best summer possible for me," said Nadal, whose second-round opponent is Nicolas Mahut, the man who lost the longest match in tennis history, 70-68 in the fifth set, at Wimbledon last year.
Against Golubev, who has a 3-13 career record in Grand Slam matches, Nadal trailed 3-2 in the first set, and 5-2 in each of the others.
"I hit good shots, but not enough," said Nadal, who finished with 18 winners, 23 fewer than Golubev.
There was one especially important point: At 5-all in the second set, Golubev hit a terrific drop shot with Nadal stuck behind the baseline. On a full sprint, Nadal lifted the ball over the net; Golubev flubbed an overhead to lose the point. Golubev thought the ball bounced twice — which would have meant he won the point — and argued at length with the chair umpire, but TV replays showed Nadal got there in time.
That gave Nadal a break point, which he converted to lead 6-5. He got broken yet again, but then reeled off the last six points of the tiebreaker.
Golubev served for the second set at 5-3, and for the third set at 5-2 and 5-4. Nadal broke each time.
"If you don't think about the points, it was not a bad performance," Golubev said. "I mean, you have to win the points when you have to win — for example, like second set or third set, when you serve for the set."
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