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Matching the No. 1 stroke-for-stroke

— PHOTO: AP

MENTAL GAME: Dinara Safina had to be talked into taking to the court against Anna-Lena Groenefeld by her coach on Monday.

NEW YORK: When Rafael Nadal double-faulted on a break point at the U.S. Open, it allowed Sam Querrey to pull even at a set apiece and 4-4 in the third on Monday.

Exactly two hours into their fourth-round match at the U.S. Open, the 55th-ranked Querrey was tied with the No. 1-ranked Nadal — tied with a man who owns five Grand Slam titles.

“You know,” Querrey would say later, “I felt like I was right in that one.”

Indeed he was, to the surprise of pretty much everyone but Querrey. The 20-year-old American managed to match the relentless Nadal stroke-for-stroke for long stretches, before losing in four sets.

“Not the worst thing in the world — going out to the No. 1 guy,” Querrey said.

“I thought I was maybe going to lose, like, (6-2, 6-2, 6-0) or something. ... After I broke him in 5-4 at love in the second set, then I started having a little more fun,” Querrey said. “From that point on, it was awesome.”

Still, it was impressive the way the 6-foot-6 (1.98-metre) Querrey stayed in extended exchanges from the baseline, precisely the sort of point that’s been the foundation of Nadal’s career, wearing down more experienced and more successful players than Querrey. Roger Federer comes to mind, for example.

“Very tough, no? Sam is a big player, a big server,” Nadal said. “He has a great future.”

Nadal wound up with more unforced errors (41) than winners (37), a rare ratio for him. Nadal’s serve was broken a total of three times in his first three matches; Querrey broke him four times.

“The match was crazy like that, no?” Nadal said.

Timely advice

Dinara Safina had to be talked into taking to the court against qualifier and 141st-ranked German Anna-Lena Groenefeld by her coach Zeljko Krajan.

“After the warm-up I just started to cry. I could not stop crying,” Safina said. “My coach said, ‘Just go out there’.

“I said, ‘I cannot push anymore myself’. He said, ‘We know that you’re not a machine. Just go out there and don’t think.

“He told me again, ‘just please don’t show me any emotions, like these negative emotions. If you want, don’t show even positive. Just go on the court and do whatever you can.

“Slowly I started to feel like I still can push myself. I am really happy that I won.”

It’s been an incredible year for Safina and a win here would be a fitting exclamation point for the 22-year-old Russian.

But winning three titles and reaching the final of six of seven tournaments since the start of May is also wearing on her nerves and body.

Rebounding

Mardy Fish finished 2003 ranked 20th, and he won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. But his progress was stalled in 2005, when he needed two operations on his left wrist, and by February 2006, his ranking had plummeted to 341st.

He’s rebounded nicely this season, though, with a victory over Roger Federer, two tournament finals and now he is among the last eight here.

The secret to this success?

“The mental side of the game is huge. I’ve certainly lost my fair share of the matches because of that,” Fish acknowledged. “I know that, and I think it’s — hopefully, it’s in the past.”

On Monday, he went to the net 69 times and won 45 of those points. Fish believes that strategy should fare well against his quarterfinal opponent Rafael Nadal.

“I feel like a guy with my style of play is someone that he doesn’t want to see,” Fish said. “You’ve got to be able to finish points quickly. He’s going to last longer than anybody. He wants to keep the points as long as possible and run the guys down, kind of body-blow after body-blow.” — Agencies

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