Tennis Capsules: Past champs V.Williams, Roddick, Federer win
NEW YORK (AP) — Venus Williams landed awkwardly on her recently injured leg after hitting a swinging volley and grimaced. It was about the only glitch during her return to tennis.
Playing for the first time in two months after spraining her left kneecap, seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-1 Monday night to reach the U.S. Open's second round.
"It was doing pretty good, till I landed on that leg on the swing volley. ... I was pretty happy to get through after not playing in forever," said Williams, whose younger sister Serena isn't playing in the U.S. Open after surgery for deep cuts on her right foot.
"It's not the same without two Williamses," the No. 3-seeded Venus added during an on-court interview. "I have big shoes to fill with just one Williams here."
She hit 10 aces, reaching 126 mph, and became only the fifth woman with 200 career victories at major tournaments.
Vinci knew, of course, about Williams' recent time off, and said afterward with a sigh: "I hoped she would play worse."
Two of the American's Grand Slam titles came at Flushing Meadows, in 2000 and 2001, and other past U.S. Open champions Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters also won on Day 1. Federer hit a back-to-the-net, between-the-legs winner and smacked 18 aces while eliminating Argentina's Brian Dabul 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at night.
Federer compiled a 46-4 advantage in winners, and none was more impressive than the trick shot that was nearly the same as one he hit against Novak Djokovic in the 2009 U.S. Open semifinals.
"This one was incredible again," Federer said. "I turned around and couldn't believe the shot landed in the corner."
He improved to 16-0 in night matches at Flushing Meadows and took the first step in his bid to reach a seventh consecutive U.S. Open final. But 32nd-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, who won the tournament in 2001, hit 12 double-faults and was upset by 109th-ranked Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1.
"I wasn't expecting a whole heap coming into this tournament, based on my preparation," said Hewitt, who had played only four matches, losing three, since Wimbledon.
Monday's loss is Hewitt's only first-round exit in 11 trips to the U.S. Open. Williams, meanwhile, improved to 12-0 in opening matches in New York, and 48-3 in openers at all major tournaments.
She hadn't competed since being upset in the Wimbledon quarterfinals June 29 by then-No. 82 Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria. Pironkova won Monday, too, and Williams could face her in the third round.
That loss at the All England Club, shortly after Williams turned 30, led to talk about how much longer she can contend for major championships — and even how much longer she intends to play on tour. Yes, once you reach a certain age, birthdays tend to make you reflect on your own mortality. They also, in the case of professional athletes, tend to prompt questions about the state of your career.
Roddick turned 28 on Monday, and after beating Stephane Robert of France 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, the ninth-seeded American was asked what significance he attributes to his age. In typical Roddick fashion, he injected his reply with some humor.
"Obviously, I know I'm probably closer to the finish than I am to the start," he said. "But ... it's a number. I'm barely older than I was yesterday."
Well, that's true. He also, however, is seven years older than he was when he won his lone Grand Slam title at the 2003 U.S. Open. There's a reminder of that accomplishment every time Roddick returns to Flushing Meadows: His spot in the locker room bears a special plate with his name and the year he was the champion, a bit of recognition he referred to as "the little deal on your locker that says you're special."
Clijsters is "special," too. The Belgian won the U.S. Open each of the last two times she entered, in 2005 and 2009, and she stretched her winning streak in New York to 15 matches Monday despite a brief blip.
The No. 2-seeded Clijsters began her title defense with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over 104th-ranked Greta Arn of Hungary. It was an afternoon of mostly straightforward results, although two-time French Open runner-up Robin Soderling was stretched to five sets before edging 214th-ranked qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer, who pounded 34 aces.
Other winners included No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 11 Marin Cilic, No. 13 Jurgen Melzer, No. 17 Gael Monfils and No. 22 Juan Carlos Ferrero, while No. 27 Fernando Gonzalez quit in the third set of his match against Ivan Dodig because of a knee injury.
Women moving into the second round included surprise 2009 U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, French Open runner-up Sam Stosur, two-time major finalist Elena Dementieva, No. 10 Victoria Azarenka, No. 13 Marion Bartoli, No. 16 Shahar Peer, and No. 24 Daniela Hantuchova, who beat former No. 1 and current No. 50 Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-4. Another past No. 1 now sitting way down in the rankings, No. 40 Ana Ivanovic, reached the second round by eliminating Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2.
Williams got off to a good start against Vinci, leading 3-0 and 4-1. But the Italian reeled off three consecutive games and 10 of 12 points to pull completely even at 4-all, 30-all.
That's when Williams took over, delivering an overhead smash on the next point, followed by her fifth ace, at 115 mph, to hold for a 5-4 lead. Williams then broke Vinci at love, giving her six points in a row to close the first set.
In the second set's opening game, Williams winced and briefly seemed uncomfortable when she planted her left foot on a winner near the net.
"Thankfully," Williams said, "after that, she did most of the running."
Williams did look absolutely fine a couple of games later when she went ahead 2-1 by smacking a down-the-line forehand passing winner on a full sprint.
"She kept pushing," Vinci said.
Williams came dressed for a night under the lights at the Open — or anywhere in New York, for that matter.
Though it wasn't nearly as risque as her lace French Open outfit, Williams' sleek black dress had an exposed metal zipper up the back — the height of chic these days — and satin-looking side panels. There were two layers of fringe at the bottom of the skirt, and she topped off the look with two ropelike strands of necklace and a pair of dangling earrings.
Her sister Serena weighed in with an opinion, tweeting: "Dress is the best ever soooo pretty!!!!!"
Federer hits through-the-legs winner at Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Federer delivered another YouTube-worthy, between-the-legs shot at the U.S. Open.
The five-time champion at Flushing Meadows hit 18 aces in his 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over 96th-ranked Brian Dabul of Argentina in the first round, part of Federer's remarkable 46-4 advantage in winners Monday night.
"There's nothing you can do when he has those days," Dabul said. "He's perfect."
No shot was more spectacular than the one Federer came up with while leading 5-3 in the second set.
He was at the net when Dabul sailed a lob high overhead. Federer turned and sprinted toward the baseline. A few steps from the wall behind the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and with his back to the net, Federer smacked the ball through his legs.
The shot cleared the net and landed in a corner for a winner beside Dabul, who raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders.
"Only he can do that," Dabul would say later.
At the far end of the court, Federer celebrated the trick shot by raising his arms overhead and lifting his right index finger to signal No. 1. It was nearly identical to a back-to-the-court, through-the-legs passing winner Federer hit against Novak Djokovic in the 2009 U.S. Open semifinals.
"This one was incredible again," Federer said. "I turned around and couldn't believe the shot landed in the corner."
Asked if Monday's shot was better than the one against Djokovic, Federer said he'd need to go to the videotape to be sure.
"In terms of difficulty, maybe this one was harder, because I had the feeling I had to run a longer distance and I was further back somehow," he said. "I had to really give the last big push at the end. I didn't have time to set it up."
And it most definitely was real, no argument about that — unlike the trick shot that has drawn more than 6 million views since being posted on YouTube two weeks ago. In that clip, shot in Zurich shortly after Wimbledon, Federer is seen serving a ball and swatting a metal bottle off a man's head — twice in a row.
Federer has been coy about the authenticity of the video, and some have been skeptical, such as two-time major finalist Andy Murray, who said this weekend: "There's not a chance it's real."
Told that other players have wondered aloud about that one, Federer replied: "I can't tell you if it's real or not. That's up for debate. ... I'm not going to answer that question."
Could he hit a ball between his legs and knock a bottle off someone's head?
"That's kind of tough, the trajectory going up," Federer said with a grin, before acknowledging, "No, I wouldn't be able to do that."
OK, so there are limits to his brilliance with a racket in hand. Still, Monday's result made Federer 16-0 in U.S. Open night matches, and he declared afterward, "I feel very much at home here."
"Obviously, I have the experience to play under pressure and with so many people, high expectations, so I guess I can use that to my advantage," Federer said. "Then court speed, surroundings, the event and everything helps my cause to really do well and play well here. I always loved coming here. Never had a bad U.S. Open."
That perfect mark under the lights has helped Federer reach six consecutive U.S. Open finals; the only loss in that stretch was to Juan Martin del Potro a year ago.
"I'd like to go there again this year," Federer said. "The path is long and rough."
His streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals ended with a quarterfinal loss to Robin Soderling at the French Open, and Federer lost again at that stage at Wimbledon.
But Monday's victory clinched a berth in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals at London in November, which is for the top eight men.
If there was anything for Federer to lament about his performance against Dabul, it was this statistic: The 16-time major champion converted only five of 19 break points.
Federer had an explanation for that, though.
He recently began working with Pete Sampras' former coach, Paul Annacone, and Federer jokingly said: "Break-point conversion wasn't very good, so that's (Annacone's) mistake."
-- Howard Fendrich
Melanie Oudin easily wins 1st match at U.S. Open
NEW YORK (AP) — A year after Melanie Oudin's surprising run to the U.S. Open quarterfinals captivated fans, there's plenty about her that's the same.
She's still a bubbly teen from Marietta, Ga., prone to sprinkling sentences with the word "like," as in, "I wasn't, like, freaking out," which is how she described her reaction to starting the 2010 U.S. Open with Monday's first match in 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium.
She still pumps a clenched fist and screams, "Come on!" after winning points, whether it's thanks to her own terrific shot or an opponent's error. She still scurries her 5-foot-6 frame around the court with abandon in brightly colored sneakers that carry an inspirational word written on the side, although her current ones read, "Courage," instead of 2009's motto, "Believe."
The primary change for the Oudin who beat 143rd-ranked qualifier Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-3, 6-0 Monday — reeling off 20 consecutive points in one stretch, and the last nine games — is now she is someone who people figure will win such matches.
"It's a lot different this year, especially going into, like, Grand Slams," Oudin said. "Last year, no one expected anything from me, and this year there are pretty high expectations for me."
When Oudin — it's pronounced oo-DAN — arrived at Flushing Meadows in 2009, she was 17, ranked 70th, never had won a U.S. Open match and was relatively anonymous. No one figured she'd go as far as she did; her hotel reservation in New York wasn't for long enough, so Oudin needed to switch places.
She upset four opponents in a row, including three-time major champion Maria Sharapova and 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, to become the tournament's youngest quarterfinalist since Serena Williams in 1999.
Along the way, Oudin's on-court spirit and off-court personality earned her plenty of adoration and attention — "a bit of a zoo," is the way her coach, Brian de Villiers, described it.
"Everyone has one Cinderella story, and mine was last year. Now it's like everyone just expects me to do that because I did it last year," Oudin said. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to happen."
Indeed, there have been some rough patches. She went 1-3 at this year's first three Grand Slam tournaments, including first-round losses at the Australian Open and French Open. She entered Monday with a 17-20 record in 2010, a four-match losing streak, and only four victories in her previous 17 matches.
The worst part? The sorts of things she sometimes has heard from spectators.
Recounted Oudin: "You hear them say stuff, and it's not like, 'All right!' (or) like, 'Come on! You're so close!' (or) like, 'You can do it!'"
She said those phrases with encouragement in her voice. Then, to illustrate the point, Oudin scrunched up her face and drenched her voice with disappointment.
"It's more like, 'Melanie, come on! What are you doing?' I hear that, like, kind of a lot," she said. "It's just really different from, like, last year, when everyone was so pumped for me. ... I'm, like, 'I'm trying as hard as I can, you know?' It's not going to happen all the time. Like, you never play your best tennis all the time."
Against Savchuk, Oudin felt some jitters early as she returned to the scene of her breakthrough. Oudin even said her stomach felt queasy. But after erasing two break points while serving at 3-all, she didn't lose a game the rest of the way and took 28 of the final 30 points.
"I knew she was going to be nervous at the start because of a lot of expectations from the fans," Savchuk said. "But in the second set, she played very confident, very aggressive. I didn't really have a chance."
Oudin is currently ranked 43rd, down from a career-best 31st in April, but consider: She was 177th at the end of 2008. She and de Villiers say Oudin's serve is much improved from 12 months ago.
"The main thing I'm trying to get into her is to play for herself and not for what other people think or say," de Villiers said. "I still don't like her reading the press or blogs or any of that. People can be brutal out there."
When Oudin left the locker room after Monday's victory, she was greeted by a hug and words of encouragement from her grandmother, who used to take a 7-year-old Melanie and twin sister Katherine — now a freshman at Furman — to hit tennis balls out of a bucket.
Oudin's mother, Leslie, was waiting in the hallway, too, right in the spot she stood a year ago to greet her daughter after each stunning victory.
"She's been working hard and has had a lot of pressure on her. I'm just so pleased she started off on the right foot. She needed this. She really needed it. Just to feel good, just to feel good about herself," Mom said. "To me, she's not reached her peak, and she's just got to be patient.
"And so does everybody else."
-- Howard Fendrich
Notebook: Clijsters says she saw Serena's foot injury
NEW YORK (AP) — Kim Clijsters said she saw Serena Williams' foot lacerations and "it's not something that she's making up or that it's a small cut or anything."
Williams, the world's top-ranked player, withdrew from the U.S. Open after surgery on her right foot. The WTA Tour has said she cut it on broken glass at a restaurant. Williams hasn't had much to say other than releasing a few statements, leading to plenty of speculation.
After she was hurt, Williams played in an exhibition match against Clijsters that drew a tennis-record crowd of 35,681 in Brussels on July 8.
Clijsters said Monday that Williams actually had cuts on both feet, but she doesn't recall whether they were on the top or bottom.
It was against Clijsters in last year's Open semifinals that Williams went on a tirade against a line judge over a foot-fault call. That led to Williams losing the match and receiving a record fine.
Williams isn't back this year, but Clijsters is, defending a Grand Slam title for the first time. She won the U.S. Open in 2005 but missed the tournament the next year because of a wrist injury.
In her first match as the reigning champion Monday, the second-seeded Belgian beat Hungary's Greta Arn 6-0, 7-5.
DENT'S DIET: American Taylor Dent has no illusions of pulling a Mardy Fish and losing more than 30 pounds. Dent, who is listed at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, wants to improve his conditioning, but he said he has found he's just not meant to be skinny.
"I've heard that my whole career," the 29-year-old said Monday. "You know, 'Taylor is too heavy.' I have tried desperately to drop weight. I mean, it's just I'm a big guy."
The 6-2 Fish is down to 170 pounds and has credited that for his recent strong play.
Dent said that in 2005, he was 215 pounds and just over 6 percent body fat.
"I mean, where am I going to lose more weight?" he said.
"So I've kind of given up in a sense to say, 'OK, I'm not going to weigh 180 pounds; I'm not going to weigh 175 pounds. I'm not going to be like these guys,'" he added. "So I just have to be stronger, I have to be more physical on the court, and I have to bully them around."
Dent beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 in the first round.
Among other American men, ninth-seeded Andy Roddick beat Stephane Robert, Michael Russell lost to sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, Robert Kendrick lost to 17th-seeded Gael Monfils, Tim Smyczek lost to 26th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci and Ryan Sweeting lost to Ricardas Berankis.
On the women's side, third-seeded Venus Williams beat Roberta Vinci, Melanie Oudin defeated Olga Savchuk, Irina Falconi lost to 19th-seeded Flavia Pennetta, and Vania King beat fellow American Christina McHale.
RODDICK ON ROCKET: Andy Roddick grew up watching a generation of baseball stars now embroiled in accusations and confessions about steroids. The American spoke as a sports fan the day Roger Clemens was arraigned on federal charges of lying about his performance-enhancing drug use.
"It's just an ugly scene right now," Roddick said. "And, you know, if he's innocent, it (stinks) because he is guilty in the court of public opinion. If he is guilty, it's really unfortunate because you don't want to see someone kind of in denial."
STREAMING MATCHES: Fans will be able to watch all matches played on the five television courts live online for free during the Open. More than 200 matches will be available, including the men's and women's finals.
The five courts are Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, Court 11 and Court 13. The live streaming will be available in the United States on USOpen.org. The feeds will also have a DVR function.
MONFILS AT HOME: France's Gael Monfils, seeded 17th, was pushed to five sets by American qualifier Robert Kendrick. Monfils won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4 against Kendrick, who is ranked 148th in the world.
Fans were chanting, "USA! USA!" But Monfils said he didn't feel as though Kendrick had the home-court advantage.
"I love USA, so for me doesn't matter," Monfils said. "I can share with them because I love the USA. For me it was more distraction, was more to relax and enjoy a bit, maybe to think about something else. So for me, it was great."
-- Rachel Cohen
Ana Ivanovic beats Makarova 6-3, 6-2 at U.S. Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Ana Ivanovic came into the 2008 U.S. Open ranked No. 1 and only a couple of months removed from a Grand Slam title.
She's been in free-fall ever since.
Ivanovic's struggles were deeper than her two consecutive early exits at Flushing Meadows, but the tournament has provided stark symbols of her descent.
What better place to prove to herself that she's starting that long climb back to the top.
Ivanovic, now ranked No. 40, beat 52nd-ranked Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2 on Monday in the first round.
That's progress after what happened the last two years. In 2008, she fell in the second round to 188th-ranked qualifier Julie Coin. Since the Open era began in 1968, the No. 1 woman had never lost that early in the tournament.
Last year, as the No. 11 seed, she was eliminated in the first round.
A series of injuries and losses hobbled the confidence of the 2008 French Open champ from Serbia.
"I think most important is that I have fun again, and it's good to be competing," Ivanovic said Monday. "I really managed to get some pressure off myself, and that's a huge step for me."
U.S. Open Glance
NEW YORK (AP) — A look at Monday's play at the $22.7 million U.S. Open tennis championships:
WEATHER: Sunny and hot with low humidity. High of 91.
ATTENDANCE: Day: 36,082. Night: 23,849. Total: 59,931.
MEN'S SEEDED WINNERS: No. 2 Roger Federer, No. 5 Robin Soderling, No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 9 Andy Roddick, No. 11 Marin Cilic, No. 13 Jurgen Melzer, No. 17 Gael Monfils, No. 21 Albert Montanes, No. 22 Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 26 Thomaz Bellucci.
MEN'S SEEDED LOSERS: No. 27 Fernando Gonzalez and No. 32 Lleyton Hewitt.
WOMEN'S SEEDED WINNERS: No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 3 Venus Williams, No. 5 Sam Stosur, No. 7 Francesca Schiavone, No. 10 Victoria Azarenka, No. 12 Elena Dementieva, No. 13 Marion Bartoli, No. 16 Shahar Peer, No. 19 Flavia Pennetta, No. 20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 21 Zheng Jie, No. 24 Daniela Hantuchova, No. 27 Petra Kvitova, No. 28 Alisa Kleybanova, No. 29 Alona Bondarenko and No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova.
WOMEN'S SEEDED LOSERS: None.
TOP PLAYERS ON COURT TUESDAY: Men: No. 1 Rafael Nadal vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili, No. 3 Novak Djokovic vs. Viktor Troicki, No. 10 David Ferrer vs. Aleksandr Dolgopolov, No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis vs. Arnaud Clement, No. 19 Mardy Fish vs. Jan Hajek; Women: No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki vs. Chelsey Gullickson, No. 4 Jelena Jankovic vs. Simona Halep, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva vs. Zuzana Kucova, No. 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Kimiko Date Krumm, No. 14 Maria Sharapova vs. Jarmila Groth.
STAT OF THE DAY: Kim Clijsters last lost a U.S. Open match on Sept. 6, 2003, when Justine Henin-Hardenne beat her for the women's title. Since then, she has won 15 straight, having won women's titles in 2005 and 2009. She didn't play in 2004 because of injury and from 2006-08 during her retirement.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I still don't like her reading the press or blogs or any of that. People can be brutal out there." — Brian de Villiers, Melanie Oudin's coach.
TUESDAY ON TV (All Times EDT): Tennis Channel, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (live), 11 p.m.-Mid (highlights); ESPN2, 1-7 p.m. (live), 7-11 p.m. (live)
ON THIS DATE: Aug. 31, 1969: Torben Ulrich and Pancho Gonzalez, both 41, play a five-set, second-round match won by Gonzalez 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 8-6, 6-2.
