TENNIS US OPEN:AMERICAN ANDY Roddick celebrated his 28th birthday yesterday with a comfortable first round victory in the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Roddick, the ninth seed, dropped just seven games as he beat France's Stephane Robert 6-3 6-2 6-2 on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the scene of his sole Grand Slam triumph.
The former world number one won the US Open in 2003 but has been unable to break the dominance enjoyed by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal since, losing three Wimbledon finals to Federer – most famously 16-14 in the fifth set of an epic contest last year.
Fifth seed Robin Soderling had a far tougher time against Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer, the Swede being taken to five sets by his unknown opponent.
Soderling looked on course for an easy win when he won the first two sets, but Haider-Maurer stormed back into the contest thanks to some powerful serving. However, Soderling delighted his small but noisy bunch of fans in the crowd by holding his nerve to win the decider and seal a 7-5 6-3 6-7 (2/7) 5-7 6-4 victory in three hours and 52 minutes.
France’s Gael Monfils also needed five sets to beat American Robert Kendrick, the 17th seed winning 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 on Court 11. Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko had earlier begun his bid for a first Grand Slam title with an easy victory in the first round.
Davydenko beat American Michael Russell 6-4 6-1 6-3 to set up a second round clash with France’s Richard Gasquet, who enjoyed a similarly comfortable victory, beating Germany’s Simon Greul 6-3 6-4 6-2.
The 29-year-old Russian missed 11 weeks of the season after breaking his left wrist in March, since when he was won back to back matches just once, reaching the quarter-finals in Cincinnati recently before losing to Federer.
In the women’s singles, Kim Clijsters admits she no longer has the element of surprise on her side after beginning the defence of her US Open title with victory over Hungary’s Greta Arn in the first round.
Clijsters charged through the opening set in just 18 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium, but fell 4-0 down in the second before rallying to complete a 6-0 7-5 win.
The second seed completed a remarkable return to the sport last year after previously retiring in 2007, beating Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in the final at Flushing Meadows in only the 14th match and third tournament of what she likes to call her “second career”.
“I think last year the players didn’t really know what to expect of me after having been off for so long,” Clijsters said. “I also had a lot of questions in my mind, seeing how are the top players playing.
“I played a couple of tournaments leading up to the US Open but didn’t play against any of the Williams sisters or Sharapova, those big names.
“I then had a match in Toronto against (Jelena) Jankovic where I felt like I was hitting the ball well and I had chances to win. I lost a close match but that to me was obviously a match where I felt like, ‘Okay, I can still do it’.”
Speaking about her win yesterday, the Belgian added: “I was really looking forward to coming back here so it was nice to start off today and get the first match over with.”
But former world number one Dinara Safina, who was top seed here last year, bowed out after losing 6-3 6-4 to 24th seed Daniela Hantuchova.
Safina has been plagued by a back injury which has forced her to miss almost three months of the 2010 season – including Wimbledon – and is currently ranked 50th in the world.
