NEW YORK (AP):Top seeds Roger Federer and Justine Henin quickly won their first matches at the United States Open yesterday, posting straight-set victories to advance to the second round of the final Grand Slam event of the season.
Federer, seeking to become the first man in the Open era to win four straight titles in the U.S championship and first since Bill Tilden in 1923, faced only two break points in beating American Scoville Jenkins 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
"I thought it was a good match, you know, tough match. Didn't allow my opponent many chances on my serve," Federer said.
"Maybe other guys like five-setters in the first round. I like straight sets more. Some reason, I don't know why," he added smiling.
Easy win
Henin, who was only 44 per cent on her first serves, still moved past Germany's Julia Goerges 6-0, 6-3 in 1:02.
"It's not my favourite Grand Slam," Henin said. "It's so different. You need to get used to it. There are places where you feel a little bit better."
Fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko also won his first match easily, while Jelena Jankovic struggled through some second-set trouble before prevailing.
Davydenko, a semi-finalist last year, eliminated American teenager Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, beating one of 10 men making their first appearance in the U.S. Open yesterday.
Jankovic began the day on the main Arthur Ashe Stadium show court and, after taking a 6-2, 5-1 lead, lost four straight before finally subduing Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia 6-2, 7-6 (2). Gajdosova survived double-match point at 5-4 to break Jankovic for a second time. She held and forced the tiebreaker, but the Serbian closed out the victory in 1:20.
Other winners
The men lost their first seed when Feliciano Lopez upset fellow Spanaird and No. 21 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Later, Max Mirnyi of Belarus beat No. 18 Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (6) and American John Isner eliminated No. 26 Jarkko Nieminen 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Other men's winners included ninth-seeded Tomas Berdych over Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 7-6 (0), 6-2; No. 10 Tommy Haas over Belgium's Steve Darcis 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3, 6-4; No. 13 Richard Gasquet over Argentina's Sergio Roitman 7-5, 6-1, 6-2; and No. 19 Andy Murray over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 6-3, 6-0. No. 28 Ai Sugiyama was the first to advance to the second round, dispatching Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-3, 6-1.
The first women's seed to be eliminated was No. 29 Samantha Stosur of Australia, beaten by France's Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-2. She was joined later by No. 25 Mara Santangelo, beaten by Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-3.
In other first-day women's play, No. 10 Marion Bartoli of France defeated American Alexa Glatch 6-1, 6-1; No. 15 Dinara Safina beat Catalina Castano of Colombia 6-2, 6-3; No. 19 Sybille Bammer dismissed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, 6-4, 6-4; No. 20 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic beat Australia's Jessica Moore 6-3, 6-2; and No. 27 Vera Zvonareva defeated Russian compatriot Alina Jikdova 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-0.
