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World number one Justine Henin opened her bid for a second US
Open title by whipping German qualifier Julia Goerges 6-0 6-3 in
just 62 minutes Tuesday.
Henin, a six-times grand slam champion and 2003 champion here,
landed only 44 percent of her first serves but was never broken in
the contest.
"It was a great atmosphere even though I wasn't able to play by
best tennis, especially in the first set," said the 18-year-old
Goerges, making her grand slam debut.
There were no major upsets on the opening day of the final grand
slam of the year, played on the hard courts under gloriously sunny
skies at the National Tennis Centre.
Third seed Jelena Jankovic looked out of rhythm during a 6-2 7-6
triumph over Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia.
"Today I was really nervous, for some reason," said Jankovic, a
semi-finalist in 2006.
"I was not that comfortable. I wasn't playing well, was struggling
out there.
"But it's always good to have some competition in the first rounds,
to feel that, so you kind of wake up so you're ready for the next
ones."
'Bad guy'
Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko advanced easily into the second round
with a 6-4 6-0 6-1 drubbing of American wildcard Jesse
Levine.
Davydenko, however, continued to be hounded by questions concerning
a match earlier this month in Poland when he retired midway through
the contest against Martin Vassallo-Arguello.
British betting exchange company Betfair voided all bets on the
match after they spotted an unusually large amount of money wagered
on Vassallo-Arguello, even though the Argentine was ranked about 80
places lower at the time.
"I am in this position now where I'm a top player, (but) fans and
everybody sees me as like a bad guy, who gambles," he told
reporters. "For me it's pretty tough.
"It's like mentally you're tired. If you go to the Internet, you
read some press writing bad things and you're already
nervous."
Jankovic overcomes wobble
A broken shoe and a second-set wobble could not throw Jelena
Jankovic off course.
The Serbian third seed survived some unexpected drama to beat
Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2 7-6.
A semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows last year, Jankovic led by a
set and 5-3 and 0-40 on the Slovakian's serve but had to come
through a second-set tiebreak to clinch victory.
"Today I was really nervous, for some reason," Jankovic said.
"I wasn't playing well, was struggling out there."
Jankovic, who has won four titles in 2007, broke Gadjosova twice to
win the first set but missed three match points in the ninth game
and two more in the 10th as the world number 101 forced a
tiebreak.
But Jankovic rebounded to win it 7-2, clinching victory on her
seventh match point to seal a meeting with Olga Govortsova of
Belarus.
"I got tight at the end, but I managed to kind of recuperate and
finish the match," the Serb said.
"Because also I broke my shoe somehow at the end of the first set.
I kind of lost my concentration a bit because I was thinking, what
am I going to do if this shoe completely wears out? Can I play
barefoot? What am I supposed to do?"
