top performance

That wasn’t quite vintage Rafa out there Sunday, but it was close enough to push him past a very rejuvenated David Nalbandian into the round of 16 at the Sony Ericsson Open on Sunday and, at the same time, put the tournament back on a pair of steadied legs.

The second ATP 1000 of the year had been rocked the last couple days by surprising losses to two of the men’s tour’s top four players — Novak Djokovic in split sets to little Ollie Rochus of Belgium, then Andy Murray in straight sets to Mardy Fish.

The Sony Ericsson needed a top performance from Nadal and it got it, a 6-7 (8) , 6-2, 6-2 triumph that had a lot to say about both players.

First, Nadal. After the last year and a half of fighting injuries, and at the still young age of 23, there’s no telling when Rafa is going to be hurt again, or if he’ll be seriously hurt again. But, for now, the speed and quickness is back, and so is his serve. He’s played two matches at the Key Biscayne, Fl., tournament, and lost only one service game. More than that, his serve looks much more varied. For a long time, if Nadal was serving to a righthanded player and into the ad court, that first serve was almost invariably going to be a slice to the backhand side. But he surprised Nalbandian continuously with first-serve placements up the middle. He’s been trying hard to hit that spot with regularity and he appears to now have it. That’s a big reason why he’s been dominant on serve.

Next, Nalbandian. He had missed all but the first two months of the 2009 season because of hip surgery, started this season in Australia, came to Florida with a 4-1 record and probably didn’t expect too much here. He appeared to tire a bit — though not critically — late in the second set and at moments in the third against Nadal. But the Nalbandian backhand . . . whoa!. It’s as world class as it ever was. He’s playing with more authority on service returns and that could signal something of a change in style for him in 2010 with quicker points and more risk-taking. He should be very happy with this performance, even in defeat.

This match was all but sealed when Nadal broke to go up 3-1 in the final set as Nalby dumped two crucial points. At 30-all, he tried to surprise Nadal with a serve-and-volley point, was in position to hit his volley, but chose to wrong-foot Nadal, who was streaking from right to left along the baseline. The volley went long and Nalbandian followed it with a forehand into the net.

After the match, Nadal said he felt his level was good, and there’s no debate there. But it’s not good enough to win this tournament. We didn’t get a lot of spectacular Nadal shot-making until the latter stages, but that may have been because Nalbandian’s ground-stroking, especially off the backhand side, just makes it so difficult to dictate play.

And that’s not to diminish Nalbandian’s forehand. In the second set, on the dead run and in a seemingly hopeless defensive position, he fired a running forehand down the line that left Nadal no play. Can the former No. 3 get his game back? That’s hard to say after hip surgery, which has been a career-killer operation for many.

Lleyton Hewitt is another hip victim trying to find glory again, but he and Nalbandian have had laser surgery, which is less invasive and gives them more hope of returning to a very high level of play. It’s still early in Nalbandian’s comeback — this was just his eighth match of the year. We have to see if there is going to be a wear-down effect on him because of the operation.

It’s not entirely clear what the problem is with Djokovic and Murray. Novak’s serve is a minor wreck right now. He faced 15 break points in losing to Rochus. As for Murray, it’s a mystery. This was, in a sense, his stomping grounds. He spends the off-season in South Florida, training at the University of Florida and running on the beaches. He’s supposedly in great physical condition. Fish has had some great moments in ATP 1000s, having beaten Roger Federer at Indian Wells a couple years ago, so we know he can play. But this was still a 6-4, 6-4 shocker.

After those losses, the tournament needed Nadal to put things back in order and he did, though I doubt he’s worried about the problems facing Djokovic and Murray. He’s got his own physical fitness to contemplate. He looks great right now, but he’s had too much injury history in the last several months to think that something else is around the next corner.