Kim Clijsters, the defending women's US Open champion, overcame a brief scare to comfortably book her place in the second round during yesterday's opening day of action in New York. The 27-year-old Belgian had looked set for an emphatic victory when she won the opening set of her match with Greta Arn of Hungary without dropping a game, winning it in just 18 minutes and for the loss of only nine points.
But Arn struck back in the second set, went two breaks up and was serving for the set at 5-4. Then Clijsters, the No 2 seed, reeled off four games in a row to ensure she triumphed 6-0, 7-5 in a match that lasted just over an hour. Elsewhere on the first day, Melanie Oudin, the American teenager, gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about as she won her opening match in impressive fashion. The 18-year-old, who blazed into the quarter-finals last year riding the support of the thunderous Flushing Meadows crowds, beat Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine 6-3, 6-0 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
The 18-year-old Oudin, No 43 in the world and third highest ranked American woman behind Serena and Venus Williams, has found it difficult to build on the rousing success she enjoyed last year at the National Tennis Center. A first-round loser at both the Australian and French Opens who failed to advance past the second round at Wimbledon, the feisty baseliner found her bearings after being level at 3-3 in the first set and won the last nine games of the match.
"After I won the first set everything just felt good again," Oudin, who dropped just two points in the second set, said in an oncourt interview after her 56-minute win. "The nerves went away. I'm so happy to be on Ashe again." Francesca Schiavone, the French Open champion, barely broke sweat as she swatted aside the challenge of Japan's Ayumi Morita with a 6-0, 6-1 success. It was also easy progress for Elena Dementieva. The Russian 12th seed, who reached the final in New York in 2004, proved too good for Olga Govortsova of Belarus as she won 6-1, 6-2.
In the men's competition, Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian sixth seed, opened his campaign with a solid 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Michael Russell of America. The Russian, twice a semi-finalist in New York, is still making his way back after a wrist injury this year, and recovered from a slow start to cruise through in two hours, 21 minutes. Russell had never won a match in five previous US. Open tournaments, but looked good as he broke Davydenko to lead 4-2. But Davydenko won four straight games to take the opening set and then eased through the remaining two sets.
Marin Cilic, the Croatian, who reached the semi-finals last year, began his bid with a comfortable success. He got past Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. * Compiled by Graham Caygill, with agencies
