Rafael Nadal’s goal isn’t beating Novak Djokovic

More fun than watching some undistinguished first-round tennis matches at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday afternoon?

Crowding around a patch of lawn to hoot and holler as Rafael Nadal kicked around a soccer ball with Novak Djokovic.

And if tennis rankings were conducted by a popular vote among the fans who begged for autographs, it would be Nadal ranked No. 1 instead of Djokovic.

But it is the Serbian Djokovic, who was also playful with the crowd, who is the defending champion here and who has won four of the last five major tournaments. It is Nadal who needs a solution to regaining some advantage over Djokovic.

Nadal, who will makes his first official tennis appearance at the tournament Friday at 7 p.m. in a doubles match with his partner and fellow Spaniard Marc Lopez, is on a seven-match losing streak to Djokovic.

Six of those losses came last year and the seventh was in January in a punishing five-set Australian Open final where both players had to pull up chairs and sit down during the trophy ceremony because the match had been so physical and emotional.

When Nadal lost last fall to Djokovic in the finals of the U.S. Open, the 25-year-old said of his lost season of results against the world’s No. 1-ranked player, “I go back home knowing that I am on my way. Six straight losses, for sure, that’s painful. But I’m going to work every day until that changes. So I have a goal, an easy goal for me now.”

Nadal said Thursday that he didn’t want anyone to think he was “obsessed” with beating Djokovic.

“I try my best every day to be a better player, year by year, and if that’s enough to beat Novak, fantastic. When I wake up every morning, I don’t think about Novak. I don’t have a spirit of revenge or obsession. I just want to be a better player.”

And Nadal feels as if he is a better player this year.

“I’m doing a lot of things better than 2011,” he said. “I have more energy, more rhythm in my legs, more power on the shots,” he said. “I feel I can hit more winners than before. That frees up the mind if you can hit winners and get more free points and not run so much. That makes a big difference in my game.”

New perspective

Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks, who missed a large part of 2011 with elbow surgery, has a new coach in former ATP player and ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert and a very specific goal for 2012.

Querrey, who won a first-round match Thursday over fellow American Tim Smyczek, 7-6 (1), 6-4, said he wants to be ranked in the top 20 by the end of the year. Querrey, who started 2011 ranked a career-high 17th, came to Indian Wells ranked 85th. He accepted a wild-card entry into the main draw and will next play 12th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

twitter.com/mepucin