Agassi, Roddick, Fish Lead Americans at US Open
Posted on August 29, 2006
The top Americans, counting one unseeded legend, did their jobs on the opening day Monday at the US Open where No. 9 seed Andy Roddick, unseeded Andre Agassi and fellow un-seed Mardy Fish advanced into the second round.
Roddick, invigorated by his partnership with part-time coach Jimmy Connors, rolled over France's Florent Serra 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
"It felt clean," Roddick said after dropping only six games. "I didn't hit yesterday. I got a very short warm-up. You know, but I feel like I've been hitting the ball pretty well. I've maintained the way I've been hitting the ball since Cincinnati. It's a lot better than last year. Better start."
Fish defeated German Simon Gruel in four sets, while Agassi made for a nail-biting night session against Romanian Andrei Pavel, winning from a set down, then 0-4 down in the third set, eventually closing out the match in four sets.
"I wanna be here real bad for the whole two weeks so -- six more (matches)," Agassi said. "I really want to leave my best stuff on the court."
The biggest upset of the day occurred when Spain's Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez stunned world No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
"I really never got going. That's true," Ljubicic said. "It's really hard for me to explain what happened. Obviously, if I had an explanation, I would try to do something differently. Just not my day."
Other upsets were orchestrated by Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. (13) Nieminen), Russian Mikhail Youzhny (d. (19) Hrbaty), Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan (d. (24) Acasuso in five), and Swiss Stan Wawrinka (d. (31) Chela in four).
Other Top 10-seeded winners were (6) Tommy Robredo (d. Saretta) and (8) Marcos Baghdatis (d. Waske).
Additional seeded winners were (11) David Ferrer (d. Almagro), (20) Novak Djokovic (d. Young), and (25) Richard Gasquet (d. Simmonds). Young, the former junior world No. 1, commented that after seeing his opponent and draw, he was happy to just win a set off Djokovic, and complained of an arm injury and leg cramp during the match.
Unseeded winners into the second round were American Justin Gimelstob (d. Marach), Germans Bjorn Phau (d. Morrison) and Benjamin Becker (d. Volandri in four), Czech Jiri Novak (d. Clement), Swiss Marco Chiudinelli (d. Vicente), Chile's Nicolas Massu (d. Sanguinetti in four), Swede Robin Soderling (d. Karlovic), France's Gilles Simon (d. Bracciali), Denmark's Kristian Pless (d. A.Martin in five), Korean Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Ramirez Hidalgo), and Brazil's Thiago Alves (d. Zabaleta).
Highlights Tuesday on the men's side at the US Open will be (2) Nadal vs. Philippoussis, (5) Blake vs. Monaco, (27) Gael "Force" Monfils vs. Russell, (17) Murray vs. Kendrick, (30) Grosjean vs. T.Johansson, (22) Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro, (15) Hewitt vs. Montanes, (23) Tursunov vs. Kunitsyn in an all-Russian, Coria vs. Sweeting, and (28) Calleri vs. the former No. 1 Moya.
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