Williams sisters go through
The final Grand Slam of the year got underway on Monday.
Celebrations in New York began with a ceremony commemorating
the 50th anniversary of Althea Gibson's US Open title. The
ceremony, which honoured many other African-American pioneers,
was capped by an appearance from singer Aretha Franklin, who
sang her biggest hit song, "Respect" and culminated
with the induction of Gibson into the US Open Court of Champions.
Fittingly, it was then sisters Venus and Serena Williams
who took centre stage at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It only took
Venus Williams 54 minutes to power past Hungarian qualifier
Kira Nagy and in this match, set the US Open record for fastest
women's serve at 129 mph. Williams said she was surprised
at hitting the serve during her first service game, which
tied the speed she reached at Wimbledon earlier this season
as the fastest ever at a Grand Slam. Top seed and 2003 US
Open champion Justin Henin, made short work of her opening
match, defeating German qualifier Julia
Goerges 60 63. Henin, who was beaten in last year's final
by Maria Sharapova, has been nursing an inflamed right shoulder,
which has restricted her to just one tournament start since
Wimbledon.
Elsewhere in the women’s draw, No. 5 seed Ana Ivanovic
stormed into the second round with a 61 61 victory over Japan's
Aiko Nakamura, as did fellow Serb Jelana Jankovic, completing
a 62 76 victory over Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova. Defending
champion Roger Federer's latest bid to create history got
off to an expected start, as he brushed aside USA’s
Scoville Jenkins in straight sets, making just twelve unforced
errors and completing his 22nd consecutive win in New York.
There was good news for the British number one Andy Murray
who easily beat Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas. He sets
up a second round encounter with Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman,
who beat Juan-Pablo Guzman of Argentina .
There were a few shocks on the opening day of tournament
as No. 18 seed Marcos Baghdatis was defeated by Max Mirnyi
63 75 36 76. Also, former finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero fell
at the first hurdle against fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
The 6ft 9in American John Isner made his presence felt against
No. 26 seed Jarkko Nieminen, producing 34 aces in a 67 76
76 64 victory.
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