Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Djokovic and Tsonga race through

US OPEN
Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Date: 31 August - 13 September
BBC coverage: Live text commentaries on the website from 1600 BST each day, regular updates on 5 live, full commentary on 5 live sports extra in week two, both finals on 5 live, tennis special on 5 live (3 September, 2000-2100 BST)

Novak Djokovic
Djokovic lost to Federer in the 2007 final in New York

Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga opened their US Open campaigns with crushing wins.

Fourth seed Djokovic, who is a possible semi-final opponent for Roger Federer, thrashed former world number three Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-1 6-3.

Tsonga needed just 78 minutes to outclass American wildcard Chase Buchanan 6-0 6-2 6-1.

The Frenchman, seeded seventh, is looking to get beyond the third round for the first time in his career.

"I'm here to win and to go to the next step," said the 24-year-old. "The next step for me is to be in the five best players in the world."

He will play Jarkko Nieminen after a dominant performance against a little-known opponent in Buchanan.

"I didn't know what to expect of him," Tsonga said afterwards. "I was wary as I remember when I was younger and had his ranking I was convinced I could beat anyone, anytime.

"It will be tough against Jarkko as he is just coming back from injury and will be hungry to do well. But I am in good shape and playing well, so why not."

Today was great. I just hope that the fans will behave nice in the next rounds

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic, beaten by Federer in the 2007 final, revealed after his win over Ljubicic that American Todd Martin had joined his coaching team.

"Todd, being a former top five player and in a couple of Grand Slam finals and very respected, brought freshness to our team and things are functioning quite well," said the world number four.

"He always looks for positives and that is exactly what I need."

And Djokovic was keen to put last year's run-in with the New York crowd behind him, when he got on the wrong side of them by feuding with Andy Roddick over the American's asides at his medical timeouts.

"Today was great," said the Serb. "I just hope that the fans will behave nice in the next rounds."

Britain's Andy Murray beat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 7-5 6-3 7-5 in his first-round match but there were two notable losers in his section of the draw.

Ivan Navarro upset 27th seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-5), and Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti fought back from two sets down to beat 19th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 4-6 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

606: DEBATE
Who will win the title this year?

Marin Cilic, who could meet Murray in the fourth round, posted a routine 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win over American Ryan Sweeting on Tuesday.

Fernando Verdasco, the 10th seed, is also through after beating Benjamin Becker 7-5 6-4 7-5.

And 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez saw off fellow Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-3 6-3 6-3.

American qualifier Jesse Witten sprang the first surprise of the day when he thumped Russia's Igor Andreev, the 29th seed, 6-4 6-0 6-2.

Witten, who had never won an ATP Tour level match before, will play Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina in round two.

The 26-year-old world number 276 said: "The last couple of weeks I've been playing well and I am not even sure why, but I am just going to roll with it.

"I played three qualifiers and I feel comfortable on the outside courts here. I wasn't nervous and that helped me get off to a quick start."

ะพ 12:06 PM

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