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“I hope it was a midnight delight,” the reigning Wimbledon champion told fans, although in truth the contest offered little drama.
Schwartzman, playing just his second Grand Slam tournament and his first tour-level hardcourt event, pulled the Serbian star into rallies from the baseline, even breaking him for his only game of the opening set.
Trailing 2-3 in the third, Schwartzman broke Djokovic to knot the set at 3-3, but Djokovic, seeking to add a second US Open title to the one he captured in 2011, promptly broke him at love for a 4-3 lead and sealed the victory on his second match point with a shot that clipped the net and fell his way. “I thought I hit the ball very well throughout the whole match,” Djokovic said. “I’m very pleased. It’s never easy to start a US Open smoothly.” That was the common refrain on the opening day, as former champions Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams also advanced, taking center stage with two-time defending champion Serena Williams and five-time champion Roger Federer due to launch their campaigns on Tuesday.
Murray lumbered through a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), 1-6, 7-5 victory over 70th-ranked Dutchman Robin Haase, battling painful muscle cramps that struck without warning. “I could have easily lost that match,” said Murray, who thought he’d have been in real trouble in a fifth set. “I was very close to losing the match.” Murray twice fought back from a break down in the fourth with Haase unable to press his advantage at 4-1 and again at 5-3 even as Murray could be seen clutching various areas of his body on shot after shot.
“I don’t know exactly why it happened today,” said Murray, who trains in the steamy heat of Miami and didn’t think the 30 C temperatures on Louis Armstrong Stadium were excessive. “At the time it happened I wasn’t exhausted.” Murray finally gained the decisive break for a 6-5 lead and finished off the match after just over three hours.
No pals act as Sharapova beats hobbled KirilenkoAFP: Former champion Maria Sharapova won the last 10 games to defeat former doubles partner and childhood friend Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-0 to reach the US Open second round Monday. Fifth seed Sharapova, the 2006 champion in New York, rallied from 2-4 down in the first set to take victory and set up a clash with Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru for a spot in the last 64. The Russian superstar, the winner of five majors, missed last year’s New York tournament with a season-ending shoulder injury. But despite an early wobble against her former top 10 compatriot, the outcome was never in doubt once Kirilenko had required treatment on her troublesome left ankle. “It’s always hard to start a tournament, especially against a player like her who is a tough opponent,” said Sharapova of Kirilenko who has now slipped out of the top 100. But facing a player she has known since they were 12 years old is never an easy occasion even if Monday’s clash was the eighth of their professional careers. “We spent a lot of time in the juniors away from the courts practicing a lot together, competing against each other. We certainly have a big history (the two played doubles at the US Open in 2004).” “But when you go out on the court, it’s always that fine line between, of course you want to be the winner, you have to face that person as a competitor, not someone that you’ve known for years and developed a friendship with. It’s always a tricky balance, I guess.” Sharapova, the French Open champion, admitted that being forced to skip last year’s New York Grand Slam had been hard to tolerate. |
