TENNIS/US Open:Marcos Baghdatis became the biggest casualty at Flushing Meadows so far, the 16th seed losing in five sets to veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement.
Clement, 32, recovered from two sets to one down to secure a 6-3 2-6 1-6 6-4 7-5 victory in sweltering heat on the Louis Armstrong court.
“What can I say? I was really heavy on court, I wasn’t feeling very fit,” admitted Baghdatis, who was a runner-up at the Australian Open in 2006 but has never been beyond the second round in New York.
“I couldn’t play aggressive. I was really defensive today and Arnaud played a very good first set. I didn’t play very good tennis and he won the match.”
Asked about his poor record in the year’s final Grand Slam, the 25-year-old from Cyprus said: “It’s true I didn’t win a lot of matches here. I had some tough draws; Roger (Federer) 2004, and I lost to Andre (Agassi) 2006 and then (Max) Mirnyi in 2007.
“But I don’t know why. I played two times in the finals of the juniors here, so I cannot say. It’s not that I don’t like the place. It’s just finding the way of winning the first matches, and then everything starts rolling. I hope next year I will find a way.”
Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis was another seed to fall, the 24th seed losing in straight sets to France’s Jeremy Chardy, but 23rd seed Feliciano Lopez advanced with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 win over Santiago Giraldo of Columbia.
In the first round of the women’s, China's Li Na became the highest seed to fall when she suffered a shock 2-6 6-4 6-2 defeat to hard-hitting Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko.
The eighth seed cruised through the first set but then lost her way as world number 59 Bondarenko stormed to victory in one hour 43 minutes.
Both Li and Bondarenko reached the quarter-finals in New York in 2009 but Li looked on course for a straightforward win when she broke serve twice to winning the first set.
But Bondarenko, who has slipped down the rankings after a three-month absence with knee trouble, levelled the match and then roared through the decider to reach round two.
Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic admitted she had enjoyed a lucky escape after scraping past Simona Halep in the first round.
Jankovic eventually prevailed 6-4 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 20 minutes, but only after world number 96 Halep had served for the match at 5-4 in the decider.
Jankovic revealed afterwards she had not initially realised the severity of the situation.
“I was in some sort of zone, I thought it was 4-3 and then thought, ‘Oh my God’,” she said. “It was unbelievable, I’m so happy to get through.
“First-round matches are never easy and today was really hard. It wasn’t my best game, so I had to work hard to get through. It’s really hot out there, I don’t know how many degrees but it’s really hot, especially on one side (of the court) with the sun in my face. It was tough, I was lucky to get through and to have another chance.”
Jankovic will face Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic in the second round, the former Wimbledon semi-finalist who vanished off the tour due to personal and financial problems.
Lucic, who beat Australian Alicia Molik 7-6 6-1, turned professional in April 1997 at the age of 15 and promptly won her first tournament, and was still just 15 when she won the Australian Open doubles title in 1998 with Martina Hingis.
“I feel fantastic, I’m so happy,” said Lucic, ranked 150th in the world. “I worked so hard to get here, this is my first US Open since 2002.
“I don’t want to go into the reasons about everything, it was just unfortunate why I haven’t played. It wasn’t because I was sick of tennis or anything like that. It was just a lot of unfortunate circumstances.
“My dream never died and never went away. I was just waiting for an opportunity. I have it and I’ve been living my dream the last couple of years. Every match I win now it’s like winning an entire tournament.
“I was really lucky and blessed to be so good when I was so young. I grew up winning since I was six years old and it was always normal. But once that was taken away for years it’s incredible; every match gives me such satisfaction.
“It’s almost like walking blind for years and really struggling a lot to finally be free again and reminding myself of the old ways and how good I can play and that I can play with these girls and beat them.”
Elsewhere, ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Spain’s Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4 6-3, while 18th seed Aravane Rezai of France needed two tie-breaks to see off Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (9-7).
Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova needed three sets to beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, the 11th seed eventually winning 6-2 4-6 6-1.