Rafa Nadal lacks one item to complete the changing of the guard in world tennis and the Spaniard could sew that up during his visit to New York City for the US Open. Top-seeded Nadal has overtaken Roger Federer as world No. 1 and major championship favorite, and shown he can cut it on the grass by winning his second Wimbledon this year. Now the stage is set for the heavy-hitting Mallorcan to lift the one major missing from his collection and prove he is a man for all seasons and courts by adding to his five French, two Wimbledons and Australian title for a career Grand Slam. But Nadal, 24, has never reached the final of the bruising hardcourt test in Flushing Meadows, too often worn out by the last Grand Slam of the season to thrive on the fast, rubberized concrete courts that have tested his troublesome knees. Fit, well rested, hungry and armed with an improved volley to better shorten points, the left-hander looks poised for a breakthrough that could sweetly come in an Arthur Ashe Stadium finale against the second-seeded Federer. However, 29-year-old Federer is not about to hand the keys to New York over to Nadal without a fight. The Swiss master, whose string of five successive US Open titles ended in a five-set loss to Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina in last year's final, revved his engines for another Flushing Meadows campaign by winning the run-up event in Cincinnati after reaching the final in Toronto. The men's tournament at the National Tennis Center, of course, is not a two-man affair. Third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia looms as a possible semifinals hurdle for Federer, while fourth-seeded, in-form Briton Andy Murray could block Nadal's path to the final. Two other players banging on the grand slam door are Robin Soderling of Sweden and Czech Tomas Berdych. An “X” factor at the noisy National Tennis Center that houses the year's final slam could come from home crowd favorites including 2003 winner Andy Roddick (seeded ninth), John Isner (18), Mardy Fish (19) and Sam Querrey (20). Line judges can relax, Serena Williams will not be gunning for her fourth US Open title. Her withdrawal after slicing her foot on a piece of broken glass in July will allow match officials to breathe a little easier safe in the knowledge that there will no repeat of her foul-mouthed outburst of last year. But rather than detract from the tournament, the American's absence has unwittingly laid the foundations for one of the most wide-open women's Grand Slam events in years. The depth in women's tennis has rarely been stronger and while Serena has been the dominant player for most of the past decade, there are many players willing to step up. At least a dozen players hold genuine hopes of winning the Aug. 30-Sept. 12 tournament, but the favorite with oddsmakers and sentimentalists is Belgian's Kim Clijsters, a two-time winner in New York and this year's second seed. Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Clijsters in last year's final, returns as the top seed and looks to be hitting peak form at the right time. Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, a US Open finalist two years ago, looms as a possible semifinal opponent in a tricky top half of the draw, but it is Sharapova that poses the first big hurdle with the pair due to meet as early as the fourth round. Sharapova, Clijsters and Kuznetsova are three of four players in the field who have already won the US Open. The other is Venus Williams, who won in 2000 and 2001.
