Leading women, including Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters, overcame a swirling, capricious wind on Wednesday to blow into the third round of the $17,75-million United States Open.
The men’s second seed, Rafael Nadal, successfully translated his power game to the hard court. The Spanish world number two and French Open champion tamed the exuberance of inexperienced American Scoville Jenkins 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 to become the first man into the third round in a match that ended after midnight as conditions calmed after an evening rain delay.
Earlier, with the breeze making every shot on the cavernous showcase court a lottery pick ’em, the women’s elite all managed to power through in straight sets.
Top seed Sharapova led the way with the loss of just one game, crushing Madagascar’s Dally Randriantefy 6-1, 6-0.
The Russian admitted that conditions were far from ideal, but as she plays for the first time in several weeks after suffering a pectoral muscle injury, the 18-year-old said she is pleased she has been moving through efficiently.
”I’m hitting pretty well,” the 2004 Wimbledon champion said. ”I didn’t have a lot of matches coming into this tournament.
”In the first round, I felt really solid, actually. I played better than I thought I would, but matches are going to get tougher and tougher from here. That’s where you have to pick up your game.”
Clijsters, the fourth-seeded form player of the summer with three trophies from four events, kept up her game with a defeat of Colombia’s Fabiola Zuluaga 7-5, 6-0.
The Belgian has yet to drop a set to the Colombian in four career meetings. The seed notched her 50th singles match win of the season with her first-round victory over Martina Muller and has lost just one match since Wimbledon.
”It was tough out there today,” Clijsters said. ”In the wind, you have to keep your footwork ready and always be ready to change positions. It was really tough.”
Serena Williams paced sibling Venus into the third round, putting the sister act to within one more win of a fourth-round meeting.
Serena, seeded eighth, stopped Colombia’s Catalina Castano 6-2, 6-2. Earlier, her elder sister, the number 10, defeated Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3 after the quick-win trend of day three.
”The wind was just swirling at random,” said Venus Williams, a former world number one. ”It may have gotten worse.
”I tried not to go for too much but still play the right shots, trying to move forward and be aggressive.”
Meanwhile, Russian ninth seed Nadia Petrova advanced over Japan’s Aikiko Nakamura 6-2, 6-0.
On the men’s side, former champion Lleyton Hewitt began a bid for his first grand-slam title since Wimbledon 2002 as he overwhelmed Spain’s former king of clay Albert Costa 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
The third-seeded Hewitt was left as the last Australian in the field when number 209 wild card Mark Philippoussis was sent packing 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 by Karol Kucera.
Philippoussis has endured a slump over the past 18 months, with his ranking almost so low as to preclude a continuation of his once-promising career. He has needed wild cards to contest eight of the nine ATP-level tournaments that he has played this year.
With retirement hints from fellow Australian Wayne Arthurs, another first-round victim, Hewitt was left to fly the Australian flag alone again in the face of world-beating performances from ATP dominators Roger Federer and Nadal.
Hewitt, twice a year-end world number one and the US Open champion four years ago, mastered the trying conditions at Flushing Meadows to stay alive for a second-round match against Argentine Jose Acasuso.
But with a child on the way in the autumn, fresh tennis challenges coming every week and a season plagued by injury, the 2004 finalist remained thankful for each round’s winning performance.
”It was one match that you just wanted to get under your belt, get into the tournament, get back into the locker room as quickly as possible,” he said.
”I executed exactly how I wanted to out there considering I knew it was going to be extremely windy,” Hewitt added. ”I went out with a game plan and executed it perfectly.” — Sapa-DPA