Top-ranked Novak Djokovic and 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer advanced with ease Tuesday at the US Open. Six-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic who captured his fourth Australian Open crown in January, launched his quest for a fourth consecutive US Open final by beating Lithuanian 112th-ranked Ricardas Berankis 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
‘I managed to make a lot of breaks in the beginning of the match and take over control,’ Djokovic said. ‘That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to play every point like it’s a match point and I’m happy with the performance overall.’ Djokovic fired 10 aces and 28 winners and needed only 82 minutes to put himself into a last-64 matchup against Germany’s Benjamin Becker.
Roger Federer made a solid start to his bid for an 18th Grand Slam title, advancing to the second round of the US Open by defeating Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 on Tuesday. The 32-year-old Swiss star, who as the seventh seed is at his lowest spot in the US Open since 2002, won a match postponed by rain from Monday night to book a last-64 meeting with Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.
‘I felt great,’ Federer said. ‘Day session or night session it doesn’t really matter when you play on Arthur Ashe Court.’ Twelve months after her agonising defeat in the US Open final, Victoria Azarenka made a triumphant return to Flushing Meadows on Tuesday. In her first match back on the Arthur Ashe Stadium since her gut-wrenching loss to Serena Williams, Azarenka chalked up a rare double-bagel win, thrashing Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-0, 6-0 in just over an hour.
‘I’m really happy to be back on this court, the last time I was here it was very emotional,’ she said.
‘To come back and compete at one of the most famous arenas in the world, it’s great ... I love New York.’ Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki reeled off five consecutive games to dig herself out of a hole on Tuesday and safely reach the second round of the US Open.
With her boyfriend, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, watching from the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Wozniacki was forced to work overtime to beat Chinese qualifier Duan Yingying 6-2 7-5.
Czech seventh seed Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, fought off Japan’s tenacious 92nd-ranked Misaki Doi 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Eleventh-seeded Samantha Stosur, the 2011 champion, was sent crashing out of the US Open on Tuesday by American 17-year-old qualifier Victoria Duval. Italy’s Sara Errani doled out a rare double-bagel thrashing Olivia Rogowska 6-0, 6-0.