Loud & smear: Nadal no fan of noisy Ashe

What was that? Vamos? Sorry, couldn’t hear.

No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal survived a few nervous moments to capture his first-round U.S. Open match Tuesday — he’s on a semifinal collision course with forever rival Roger Federer — and afterward complained about the acoustics with the Arthur Ashe Stadium roof closed on a rainy day in Flushing.

“Today, under the roof, was too much. Too much noise, no? I was not able to hear the ball when you are hitting, no?” said Nadal, in his customary phraseology, after beating Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2, despite a shaky first set. “I understand it’s a show, at the end of the day, and I enjoy that. I feel part of this, of course, but under the roof, you know, we need to be a little bit more strict about the noise, in my opinion, no? Because all the noise stays inside, and this is difficult, no?”

Nadal, a two-time Open winner among his 15 major titles, peppered his objections with praise for the unique energy and enthusiasm of the New York City crowds. He played the first closed-roof match at Ashe when the retractable lid debuted last year, and tournament organizers vowed to look into the noise issue before Year 2.

Nadal said Tuesday the decibel level remains problematic, even compared to indoor matches at the Australian Open or Wimbledon.

“It’s true that there is ways to try to control a little bit,” Nadal said. “The USTA made an amazing improvement for the fans, for the players, for the TVs, for everybody with the roof, and now they can make it even a little bit better if they can control a little bit more that.”

Specifically, Nadal said he had trouble communicating with Lajovic when he needed his opponent to pause an extra second before a serve, and it was “difficult to analyze how the ball is coming when you are not hearing very well the sound of the opponent’s ball.”

It surely contributed to an uneven start for the 31-year-old Spanish great, who was down a break for most of the first set before knotting things at 5-5 and eking out a tight tiebreaker. From there, he found the range on his laredo lefty forehand and the rout was on.

“Important thing is I won. Another chance to play better the next day, no?” Nadal said.

The indoor match did provide one benefit: Nadal now has an extra day of rest compared to the rest of his and Federer’s half of the draw, after rain washed out play on every court but Ashe.