Rafael Nadal and the U.S. Open: If not now, when?

Reporting from New York — 

“Rafa, Rafa, over here, Rafa.”

This noisy, frantic, staccato cry bounced around the U.S. National Tennis Center grounds Saturday, where crowds gathered to watch practice and to maybe snap a cellphone photo of a favorite player, the favorite player being Rafael Nadal if decibel measurement of cheering counts for anything.

Roger Federer received respectful applause. Andy Murray walked around with hardly anybody noticing. “Where’s your wife, Andy?” someone shouted to Andy Roddick, who happens to be married to Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.

But it is Nadal who offers a bit of that rock star aura, even at the U.S. Open, a place where he has not yet found the ultimate success.

Nadal, 24, has won eight major championships, a pace that is even a little ahead of Federer, whose 16 Grand Slam titles are the most in history. But Nadal has never won the U.S. Open, which begins Monday.

Nadal, ranked No. 1 in the world and seeded No. 1 in New York, won the French Open and Wimbledon this year. But a championship on the fast hard courts in Flushing Meadows has not happened for Nadal.

He has been a semifinalist twice but not even once a finalist. He has arrived here in the past tired (for example after the Olympics in 2008) or bothered by nagging injuries, such as the sore abdominal muscle that caused him concern last year, or achy knees or feet or just about anything you can figure.

Former Open winner Jim Courier said there is any easy remedy for Nadal’s New York troubles.

“He needs to play a schedule more like the Williams sisters,” Courier said, suggesting that Nadal needs to play less during the summer, especially, and rest more before this tournament.

And that’s what Nadal has done. He had sore knees at Wimbledon and took three weeks off.

“The important thing here is arrive and when you start a competition, when you need to play your best, play your best,” Nadal said Saturday. “Physically I am fine. But the second thing, I think, being fine mentally.”

Though Nadal is seeded No. 1, ESPN analyst Mary Carillo said she considered the second-seeded Federer the favorite.

“The court still seems to play a little too fast for his liking,” Carillo said of Nadal, “but at least he’s not banged up as in years past. He’s done a very good job of working his schedule so the problem won’t be physical. Now the problem becomes technical.

“On clay and on grass, those two surfaces really sink his ball and it behaves the way he wants. The fast hard court doesn’t take the spin he’s putting on his ball and that’s not his style.”

Brad Gilbert, a former ATP Tour player who has coached Andre Agassi and Roddick and also is an ESPN commentator, said Nadal’s downfall in New York has been his return of serve.

“He’s susceptible to a big serve,” Gilbert said. “Also, on hard court his backhand is a great swing and he needs to do a lot less running around and a lot more cracking that backhand.”

A couple of weeks ago in Toronto, Nadal offered some self-analysis on what he could do better in New York.

“It is impossible to win without playing aggressive,” he said. “So if I really want to have chances to win, I have to play aggressive.”

Jimmy Connors, who will offer commentary for the Tennis Channel, said it’s not a matter of if but when Nadal will become only the seventh man to have won each of the four major titles at least once.

“He’s not afraid to go out there and play,” Connors said, “but it’s more than just tennis. He is willing to learn, to take knocks. He has a desire to sacrifice that I don’t see all the time.”

Last year Nadal lost to eventual champion Juan Martin del Potro, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, in a semifinal devoid of drama or even much competition, and it ended an event where Nadal had received treatment for, as he called it, “a broken abdominal.” And in 2008, when he was admittedly exhausted, Nadal lost to Murray in the semifinals. That’s as far as he has gotten at the Open.

This year, says John McEnroe, Nadal has prepared well.

“He’s done exactly what he needs to do,” McEnroe said. “This is his best chance, perhaps the best chance he will ever have, to win.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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