WORLD No 1 Ana Ivanovic began her US Open challenge with a scrappy win over Vera Dushevina yesterday.
The 20-year-old Serb recovered from a second-set slump to claim a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory on Arthur Ashe Court.
There were question marks over the fitness of Ivanovic heading into the US Open after she withdrew from the Beijing Olympics with a thumb
injury.
But she twice broke the serve of world No 57 Dushevina on her way to wrapping up the opening set in just 27 minutes.
Dushevina forced her way back and lapses from the Serb in the eighth and tenth games allowed the Russian to take the set.
The final set went with serve for the first six games, but nerves appeared to get the better of Dushevina
and Ivanovic wrapped up an unconvincing win in a little over two hours.
Ivanovic will now face either Frenchwoman Julie Coin or Casey Dellacqua of Australia in the next round.
Daniela Hantuchova, on the comeback trail after being sidelined with a foot injury earlier this year, was crushed 6-4, 6-2 by German qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld. The 11th-seeded Slovakian, who reached the last four at the Australian Open in January, struggled to find her range against the German and was swept aside in 71 minutes.
American Sam Querrey posted a mild upset in the first round of the men's singles with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 triumph over 22nd seed Tomas Berdych.
Ranked 55th in the world, Querrey
was outstanding against his Czech opponent, winning 88% of his first serves.
Number 14 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia booked a spot in the second round with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Jan Minar.
Second-seeded Roger Federer was due to start his bid for a fifth consecutive US Open title against Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
After dominating the tennis scene for the last few years, Federer has taken a back seat to Rafael Nadal, who defeated the Swiss at the French Open and Wimbledon this year en route to taking over the top spot in the rankings.
Ranked second in the world at a major for the first time in more than four years, Federer was set to take on Gonzalez in the final match of the night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It will be Federer's first career match with the 25-year-old Gonzalez, who is ranked 118 in the world.
Another anticipated match has American Vincent Spadea facing 2000 US Open champion Marat Safin of Russia. In their only previous meeting, Spadea was victorious at Miami in 2004.
The full article contains 451 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
