To experience a live-action viewing of Rafael Nadal is to be in awe of his sheer effort, the startling expenditure of unbridled energy, even as he fidgets in routinized preparation between points.
The first-timers in the stands are easy to find.
“Geez,” they cried during Nadal’s 6-2, 6-4, 6-1, 1-hour-41-minute pummeling of Alexandr Dolgopolov in the fourth round of the United States Open on Monday. “Whoa,” they exclaimed after another swashbuckling southpaw forehand accompanied by the guttural Nadal soundtrack and that familiar curled-lip sneer of momentary satisfaction.
The lower-bowl wonderment inside Arthur Ashe Stadium did not go undetected in the Nadal camp.