Nadal advances, but shaky in US Open

Associated Presss

NEW YORK

Rafael Nadal’s first match as defending U.S. 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 U.S. Open.

“Well,” Nadal conceded, “I was a little bit lucky to win today in straight sets.”

Li Na upset

French Open champion Li Na left no doubt of how she felt about losing in the first round of the U.S. Open for the second straight year.

The sixth-seeded Chinese player used an expletive during a post-match news conference to describe her performance in a 6-2, 7-5 loss to 53rd-ranked Romanian teenager Simona Halep.

A year that started out so triumphantly has spiraled down quickly for the 29-year-old.

“Now I even lose all the confidence on the court,” she said. “I was feeling, ‘Oh, tennis is just too tough for me.”’

Li reached her first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, then became the first major singles champion from Asia at Roland Garros. But since then, she was won consecutive matches just once.

“French Open is like three months [ago] already,” she said, her voice alternating from disgust to despair. “I mean, is enough time to forget.”

The second round at Flushing Meadows will be without all three of this year’s major champions. Australian Open winner Kim Clijsters withdrew because of injury, while Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova lost Monday.