Wed, Aug 31, 2016 page16

• Djokovic manages to win despite pain

  NOT GOOD, OR BAD: Rafael Nadal was happy to secure a win without pain to his wrist, but said he has still not regained his confidence hitting down-the-line forehands

  • AP, NEW YORK
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  Novak Djokovic on Monday night double-faulted, then shook his right arm and grimaced.

  Seconds later, a weak serve produced a wince from the US Open’s defending champion, followed by a missed forehand that gave away a set — the first set dropped by Djokovic in the first round of any Grand Slam tournament since 2010.

  While he managed to emerge with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, there were plenty of signs of trouble, starting with a visit from a trainer who massaged Djokovic’s bothersome arm after only five games.

  

  Serbia’s Novak Djokovic rubs his shoulder during his US Open first-round match against Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Monday.

  Photo: Geoff Burke, USA TODAY

  Asked about his health during an on-court interview, Djokovic deflected the question, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about this now. I’m through. I’m taking it day by day.”

  When the subject arose at his news conference, Djokovic again avoided addressing the topic, saying the trainer’s visit “was just prevention; it’s all good.”

  During the match, Djokovic hit first serves of about 161kph, sometimes slower — 40kph or so below what is normal for him. He hit second serves of about 130kph.

  He flexed that right arm, the one he has used to wield a racket on the way to 12 Grand Slam titles, and appeared generally unhappy, covering his head with a white towel at changeovers.

  Djokovic’s coach, Boris Becker, gnawed on his fingernails, looking nervous as can be.

  All in all, Djokovic’s issues figure to loom large as the tournament progresses, and therefore amounted to the most noteworthy development at Flushing Meadows, even if there were results of interest elsewhere.

  Those included No. 8-seeded Madison Keys’ 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 comeback victory over 60th-ranked Alison Riske in the last match of the night. It finished at 1:48am, well after Keys took a medical timeout while a trainer worked on her right shoulder in the second set, and extended Riske’s Grand Slam losing streak to 10 matches.

  That was one of three intriguing all-US contests on Monday. The others were 20th-seeded John Isner’s comeback from two sets down to edge 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe before a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd at the new Grandstand, and 26th-seeded Jack Sock’s five-set victory over another 18-year-old, Taylor Fritz.

  A first-round loss by Rio Olympics gold medalist Monica Puig and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza’s complaints about having trouble breathing after dropping the first set of a match she would go on to win in three added more drama.

  This was No. 1-ranked Djokovic’s first match at a major since losing to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon, which ended the Serb’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam after titles at the Australian Open and French Open. He exited the Rio Olympics in the first round, then sat out the Cincinnati Masters because of a sore left wrist.

  “After all I’ve been through in the last couple of weeks, it’s pleasing, of course, to finish the match and win it,” said Djokovic, who lost to his next opponent, Jiri Vesely, at Monte Carlo in April. “Look, each day presents us some kind of challenges that we need to overcome, accept and overcome.”

  The wrist appeared to be just fine against Janowicz, a former top-20 player who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2013 and is now ranked 247th after his own series of injuries.

  Earlier in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Rafael Nadal stood near the net after winning his first Grand Slam match in three months — 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin — and unraveled the thick wrap of white tape protecting his all-important left wrist.

  He said he was still not back to hitting his forehand the way he does when he is at his best.

  Nadal’s afternoon match was played with the new US$150 million retractable roof open under a blue sky, which offered some extra shade on a day when the temperature reached 32°C.

  The good news for Nadal, he said afterward, is that the pain is gone from his wrist, which whips those violent, topspin-heavy forehands that are the key to his success — 14 of his 21 winners came off that wing.

  The bad news for Nadal?

  He still is working on feeling comfortable hitting down-the-line forehands in particular, after sitting out — not just zero real matches, but barely any practice, either — from his withdrawal at the French Open in late May to the Olympics.

  “Not easy to go two-plus months out of competition, in the middle of the season, without hitting a forehand,” Nadal said. “I need to have the confidence again with my wrist.”

  Both Nadal and his coach, uncle Toni Nadal, described the way Rafael Nadal changed the way he hits a forehand during the Rio Games to try to avoid pain.

  Both said things are improving, but Toni Nadal added: “We need a little time.”

  Istomin, ranked 107th, was not likely to give Rafael Nadal much of a test. So what did he think of Rafael Nadal’s play on Monday?

  “For the first set, I was feeling that he was not hitting hard,” Istomin said. “A lot of short balls.”

  Rafael Nadal’s summation of his day: “Not very good; not very bad.”
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