Nadal sees room for improvement

Rafael Nadal conceded his confidence is not as high as when he won the US Open title 12 months ago but he will be happy as long as he keeps making progress.

The world number two somehow escaped with a straight-sets victory over Andrey Golubev in the first round despite trailing badly in both the second and third sets.

He had no such problems in the second round on Friday, leading Nicolas Mahut 6-2 6-2 when the Frenchman became the 16th singles player to withdraw from the tournament.

Nadal said: “I’m sorry for him. He felt pain when he was serving. That’s what he told me. So I wish him all the best.”

The Spaniard had a superb 2010, winning three grand slam titles, but this season he has been thoroughly usurped by Novak Djokovic, who he lost to in the Wimbledon final.

Nadal struggled in the US Open warm-up tournaments but he was quick to remind people that he rarely glides through a grand slam unscathed, not even when he won his first Flushing Meadows title last year.

Mahut said Nadal did not seem to be going for his shots as much as he was 12 months ago, and Nadal admitted: “Probably that’s correct. Nobody’s with the same confidence in every moment of his career.

“One year ago, in the second round, I didn’t go for those shots, too. I played a defensive match, suffering a lot against (Denis) Istomin.

“The people remember the last day when you are with the trophy, when you play fantastic in the final. But, to arrive at this moment, not everything is a way of roses.

“Not everybody’s ready to start from the beginning to play perfect. Sometimes you are not ready to start perfect and you cannot improve during the tournament, so you go back home. That’s the sport.

“We will see if I am ready to improve. I improved a little bit for the third round. I’m happy for that.”

Nadal next faces Argentinian David Nalbandian, who knocked out 30th seed Ivan Ljubicic and has won two of his four meetings with the Spaniard, although both of those came back in 2007.

The second seed said: “He’s a very dangerous opponent. I’ve had very tough matches against him. We practise a lot together. He’s a good friend. It will be a very good test for me.”

Donald Young, once the great teenage hope of American tennis, pulled off the best result of his career with a 7-6 (9-7) 3-6 2-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) victory over 14th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, showing that at 22 he may now be ready to live up to his potential.

It was a topsy-turvy match that featured an astonishing 18 breaks of serve, but Young showed tremendous spirit to battle back from two sets to one down and then recover from missing a chance to serve for the match to win it in a tie-break.

Young, who next faces 24th seed Juan Ignacio Chela, beat Andy Murray in Indian Wells earlier this year but the nature of this victory and the stage on which he produced it makes it much more significant.

Former champion Juan Martin Del Potro eased into the third round with a 6-2 6-1 7-5 victory over fellow Argentinian Diego Junqueira.

The 22-year-old said: “I played better than my first round. I was more confident with my forehand, especially in the beginning of the match. It doesn’t matter if you play good or not in the first round if you win. Now I’m in the third one, so I need to improve.”

Del Potro faces 12th seed Gilles Simon next in an enticing clash while giant American John Isner continued his good form, the 28th seed seeing off countryman Robby Ginepri 6-4 6-3 6-4 to make it seven straight wins after his title in Winston Salem last week.

Fifth seed David Ferrer eased past James Blake while Feliciano Lopez, seeded 25th, beat Vasek Pospisil but 17th seed Jurgen Melzer was knocked out, losing 3-6 6-3 1-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5) to Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn.