Injured Nadal Has Tough Task Against Federer

Aug 30, 06:24 AM

Current Headlines: By John Jeansonne, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Aug. 30--This is neither the time nor the place for Rafael Nadal's left knee to wimp out. Not with Nadal in hopeful pursuit of Roger Federer for major championship supremacy and meanwhile confronted with a playing surface he has not yet mastered.

Plotted on a chart, Nadal's chances of catching Federer lately have been increasing, if incrementally, given Nadal's 3-2 career advantage in Grand Slam events and highlighted by Nadal's insistence on some fifth-set magic by Federer in this year's Wimbledon final. But with the U.S. Open presenting a greater environmental challenge for Nadal -- the 21-year-old Spaniard's clay-court genius has been muted on Flushing Meadows' blue cement -- and Federer confidently riding a three-year winning streak here, Nadal hardly needed physical complications.

Nadal won his first-round Open match yesterday against Alun Jones, a wild-card from Australia ranked 123rd, but it wasn't quite clockwork: 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. And Nadal acknowledged that a painful knee inflammation, which developed during practice three days earlier, would have precipitated his withdrawal from a lesser tour event.

"The last minute of practice [on Sunday] I feel something," Nadal said. "The next day I don't practice. [Tuesday] I practice, well, 35 minutes. Maybe if I am in another tournament, I never go on the court . But it is the U.S. Open, so is very important tournament for me. I have big illusion for playing good this tournament."

He shrugged, emphasizing his uncertainty about his possibilities now.

All of tennis is keenly aware that Nadal (or anyone else) will require all their faculties to entertain any real possibilities against the 26-year-old Federer, already holder of 11 major tournament titles. As he demonstrated against Chilean qualifier Paul Capdeville in a second-round victory last night, Federer is the sport's Swiss army knife, a veritable tool kit of handy tennis implements.

His racket appears a combination screwdriver, can opener, nail file, saw, magnifying glass. Whatever he needs, whenever he needs it, Federer produces pace or precision, elegance or violence, constructing architecturally pleasing points. His thorough 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 thrashing of Capdeville reminded how little room there is for an opponent's imperfection.

"I'd love to believe that all it takes is saying I can do something," James Blake said of whether Federer's peers are lacking faith when they face him. "There's a million of those self-help books to tell you to just see it and believe it and it's gonna happen. Every time I go into playing Roger, I think I can win, and I think I have just as good a chance as anybody to beat him on my best day. But after the match, I'm always pretty realistic. The guy's good. The guy's better than good. He's possibly the greatest of all time, probably the greatest of all time."

Former Open champ Lleyton Hewitt insisted he is among those who have not given up on somehow derailing Federer. "But he just plays extremely confident on the big points when he needs to," Hewitt said. "Sort of second nature for him. He does that week in and week out. Four or five years of doing it on the big points. You know, he keeps doing it."

Nadal, meanwhile, is wondering whether his knee will give up before he does. "Is not an important injury," Nadal said. "I have an MRI, and is not a big problem."

But a similar condition that developed in his right knee during the Wimbledon final didn't show improvement until he resorted to aggressive treatment and, more importantly, rest.

"Today I don't move too much," he said, "but I play, so that's the good news. I hope I feel better."

But just "better," against the best?

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