Nadal shows signs of mastering Meadows

There was a time when Rafael Nadal was regarded as a clay-court specialist, but his first appearance in a Wimbledon final four years ago changed all that. Beating Roger Federer to win the Australian Open last year showed that he can conquer hard courts too, though there are those who believe he will always struggle to win the US Open.

Almost everything here, the argument goes, counts against the world No 1 and his heavily spun ground strokes. The combination of a slick playing surface, the Wilson balls (which players say lose their fluff more quickly than others) and the New York heat make the conditions at Flushing Meadows quicker than almost anywhere on the circuit.

In seven appearances at the year's final Grand Slam event, Nadal has never gone beyond the semi-finals, having fallen at that stage in both 2008 and 2009, losing to Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro respectively. His latest attempt to claim the final jewel in his Grand Slam crown began with a straight-sets victory over Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili. Although it took him nearly three hours to win 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, there were signs that the 24-year-old Spaniard is adapting his game to the testing challenge of winning here.

Nadal is never going to start hitting flat forehands in the style of a Jimmy Connors, but he knows that the huge looping strokes, loaded with top spin, that serve him so well on clay are much less effective here.

"The ball is the more difficult thing for me because I think it's much easier to hit for players with flat shots than top-spin players," Nadal said after his victory. "But I won the Olympics with this ball. I won in Beijing in 2005 with this ball. I can do it."

He added: "The thing is to play with top spin but to play very aggressively all the time, to play with a very high rhythm. That's the way."

The other asset that most successful players at Flushing Meadows have is a big serve. Nadal has never struck the ball with the power of the game's biggest servers, but he has worked hard to improve an area of his game that many used to regard as his most significant weakness. Against Gabashvili he hit seven aces, served at speeds of up to 131mph – which was 8mph faster than his opponent – and won 78 per cent of the points when he put his first serve in court.

"My serve tonight worked well," Nadal said. "Hopefully it will continue like this. My serve is not my best shot but I always try hard to keep improving and that's what I'm working on all the time. I know if I want to have chances to win here I need to serve really, really well, so that's one of the things I am most focused on."

Nadal looked well below his best in his two warm-up tournaments before arriving here, but believes his game is on an upward curve. "The concentration was high all the time," he said. "The forehand is working well. The backhand has improved a little bit. I just need to have a little more confidence to improve a little bit and to go to the next step. I need to play a little bit more aggressively and be a little bit more calm, but I think the basic things are right."

The Wimbledon champion next plays Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who beat Maximo Gonzalez, of Argentina, in straight sets. They have met once before, Nadal winning in three sets at the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club three months ago.