Five-time champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams reached the US Open second round on Tuesday, but found themselves sharing the headlines with teenage upstarts Catherine Bellis and Borna Coric.
Federer claimed his 50th win of the year as the 17-time major winner, playing in his 60th successive Grand Slam and bidding to become the oldest major winner in more than 40 years, defeated Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to register his 23rd win in 24 night matches in New York.
“It was a bit more difficult than I thought it was going to be in the third set. Marinko has a big game,” said second-seeded Federer, who hit 10 aces and 41 winners and was cheered on by basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Photo: AFP
Federer is to face another Australian, big-serving Sam Groth, for a place in the last 32 as he continues his bid for a record sixth US Open title, but first since 2008.
Women’s world No. 1 Williams, the double defending champion who is also seeking a sixth title, was equally untroubled, defeating 18-year-old compatriot Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-1 in just 55 minutes.
Williams, like Federer, a 17-time major winner, has failed to make it past the fourth round at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year.
Photo: AFP
“This was the first Slam I ever won. I love coming out to play — I never want it to stop,” said Williams, who was dressed in a leopard-print dress for the occasion and is next to tackle compatriot Vania King.
When the world No. 1 won her first US Open in 1999, Catherine Bellis was not even five months old.
However, on Tuesday, Bellis, ranked at a lowly 1,208 and aged just 15, knocked out Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova, the 12th seed, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest player to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova in 1996.
“I went into the match thinking it was going to be such a great experience, but I never thought I would come out on top winning,” said Bellis, who, as an amateur, had to pass up the US$60,000 prize money to avoid jeopardizing a college sports career.
Coric, the 17-year-old world No. 204 who was junior champion last year, also made a stunning Grand Slam debut with a convincing 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over 29th-seeded Czech Lukas Rosol, the man who dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon two years ago.
The upset put Coric into a second-round clash with history-making Victor Estrella Burgos, the Dominican Republic’s first Grand Slam participant, who is making his US Open debut at 34.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova breezed into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 rout of French No. 73 Kristina Mladenovic.
The third-seeded Czech did not surrender a service break in the 54-minute contest, breaking Mladenovic five times.
Canadian seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard, the Wimbledon runner-up, eased past Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-1, slamming the brakes on her post-All England Club final slump which had brought her just one win coming into New York.
Bouchard is one of four Canadians in the main draw this year, the most since 1989 and is aiming to keep up her record of having made at least the semi-finals at all the majors this year.
Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, the eighth seed, eased past Alison Riske of the US 6-3, 6-0 in a tie which featured eight breaks of serve.
Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the 2011 champion, went through with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Lauren Davies of the US, firmly erasing the nightmare of her first-round exit last year to US teenager Victoria Duval.
However, another former champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 winner, was dumped out 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) by New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic, who won her first US Open match at the fifth time of asking.
Victoria Azarenka, the runner-up to Williams for the past two years, defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-1 as the 16th seed looks to resurrect a season wrecked by a left-foot injury which restricted her to one event in six months in the first half of the year.
Two-time men’s semi-finalist David Ferrer, the Spanish fourth seed, was also a winner on Tuesday, beating Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.
The US’ top hope in the men’s division, 13th-seeded John Isner, saw off compatriot Marcos Giron 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) as he bids to end the US’ 11-year wait for a men’s Grand Slam title.
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