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Top seed Roger Federer began his bid for a fourth consecutive US Open title with a nonchalant 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory over American qualifier Scoville Jenkins in the first round on Tuesday.
The world number one, going for his 12th grand-slam crown, wrapped up victory in just 92 minutes and now plays either Rainer Schuettler of Germany or Paul Capdeville of Chile.
"It always feels kind of a relief to get through the first one," Federer said in a courtside interview.
"It was tough. Scoville is a good player and I'm happy to get through. Now hopefully I can relax a little."
Federer was rarely threatened on serve and broke Jenkins, the
world number 319, four times reach the second round.
Top-ranked Federer landed just 60 percent of his first serves and
had only a 25-24 edge in winners. But the Swiss had only 12
unforced errors, compared to 31 for Jenkins.
"Unfortunately for him he double faulted quite a bit on break
points, which obviously helped," said Federer. "From the baseline,
he was tough. He was kind of controlling play.
"So I was just trying to keep the ball in play."
Jenkins, a qualifier, said playing Federer was "mentally
frustrating." He has played five Open matches in his career and
three of them have been against the number one or two players in
the world.
"He just plays you, trying to make you play your worst and he plays
his best," the Atlanta native said of Federer. "He matches up his
strength to your weakness unbelievably."
