NEW YORK—What a difference converting a break point can make.

Rafael Nadal pushed Leonardo Mayer early and often on the Argentine’s serve in their third-round match on Saturday. But he couldn’t win the point that mattered most. Mayer saved break points in every way possible: with aces, with service winners, with forehand winners, with backhand winners. And as the match went on, Nadal lost them in every way possible: with wayward forehands, wayward backhands and, most of all, weak returns of serve.

Rafa has often suffered from the yips when trying to return second serves on break points, but this time the nerves spread, and he seemed to be virtually immobilized every time he earned another chance to break. Time after time, he came up with a brilliant shot—a lob, a pass, a great piece of defense—at deuce, only to freeze in his tracks on the next Mayer serve. By the time he reached double digits in break points, I was sure that the only way Rafa was going to break was on a Mayer double fault.

Instead, at 3-3 in the second set, facing his 14th break point, the Argentine finally made a mistake: He hit a hard first serve into Rafa’s forehand wheelhouse, fast enough that he didn’t have time to think and tighten up. Nadal rifled a return down the middle, and Mayer misfired on a forehand. The moment had finally arrived. Mayer was still ahead on the scoreboard, but everyone in the building felt like the match was Nadal’s.

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So, apparently, did Rafa. In the space of a point, he was transformed from a fretting wreck into something resembling what he is, the No. 1 player in the world. He held at love for 5-3, broke for the second set with a running crosscourt pass and let loose with the only celebration that would do in that moment: a vintage lawn mower.

The euphoria was enough to send Nadal sailing through the third set, which he won 6-1. The peak for Rafa came in the first game of the fourth set, when he tracked down a forehand outside the doubles alley and hooked a passing shot into the the far corner for a winner—what Rafa calls “the banana” pass. He broke serve a few points later, and that seemed to be that.

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But that wasn’t quite that. Nadal’s nerves flared when he was trying to build a lead early, and they flared again when he was trying to close out the match. He was broken serving at 5-2, and had a few more nervy moments when he tried to do it again at 5-4 and found himself at 30-30. But he had served well through the fourth set, and his serve helped him over the finish line for a more-dramatic-than-it-sounds 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 win.

Afterward, Nadal said that his biggest issue is his forehand. He struggled to “create space” and go down the line with it early, and the plan is to work on it on Sunday. But he also said that he was happy with his effort—he had a lot of chances to get frustrated, he said, and he didn’t. He hoped that the last three sets could be a turning point for him in the tournament.

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A nervy Nadal finally broke Mayer, freeing him into the fourth round

A nervy Nadal finally broke Mayer, freeing him into the fourth round

I thought the same thing when Nadal came back to win the last three sets against Taro Daniel on Thursday, but obviously Rafa wasn’t home free after that. Maybe, rather than anything changing drastically for him from one round to the next, he’s just going to have to work his way into each match and raise his level all over again. While Rafa worried about his forehand, I thought it was his nerves, rather than his game or any of his shots, that hurt him most in this one.

Which of those two things wins out, the game or the nerves, will likely determine how this tournament ends for Rafa. For now, his fans just hope it doesn’t take him quite as long to convert that first break point.

(Photos in the story courtesy of Anita Aguilar)

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A nervy Nadal finally broke Mayer, freeing him into the fourth round

A nervy Nadal finally broke Mayer, freeing him into the fourth round

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