Federer rides 10-game roll to easy 1st-round win
NEW YORK — Perhaps that No. 2 in front of Roger Federer name made Maximo Gonzalez believe he had a shot at knocking off the four-time defending U.S. Open champion.
Not so fast, Maximo.
For a while in the first set, Federer couldn't shake Gonzalez, who was making his Flushing Meadows debut Tuesday night. No easy task any time, but way worse to get your feet wet against the man that had been ranked first in the world for 4½ years until last week.
"One or 2 is always pretty much the same thing," the 27-year-old Federer said of his seeding. "The change I feel is fans are really supporting me and telling me I'm still No. 1 and still the best."
Federer ran off wins in 10 straight games over three sets to turn a competitive match into the rout everyone expected. It took only 1 hour, 22 minutes for Federer to look familiarly fearsome in a dominating 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 win.
Quite a difference from James Blake's five-set win on Monday night that wrapped up Day 1 of this U.S. Open at 12:35 a.m.
On the women's side Tuesday, No. 1 seeded Ana Ivanovic bounced back from an injured right thumb that forced her to skip the Beijing Olympics and beat Vera Dushevina 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the first match at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the morning.
Ivanovic shook off the second-set misstep and avoided becoming the first top-seeded woman to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open.
No. 4 seed Serena Williams advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Kateryna Bondarenko during the day, and sister Venus — seeded seventh — got the night session off to a rousing start by eliminating Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-3 and setting the stage for Federer.
After the early intrigue when Gonzalez was even 3-3 in the opening set, the mismatch became evident. Federer held serve, broke Gonzalez for a 5-3 edge, and closed out the set on his racket.
Another break of Gonzalez's serve at the start of the second put the wheels in motion for Federer's shutout middle frame. He earned yet another break to begin the third set, giving him 10 consecutive game wins — a run that was snapped when Gonzalez tied it at 1 by winning on Federer's serve.
"It was a good match to start off with," Federer said. "I never saw my opponent before. that was the tricky part."
Federer barely broke a sweat and it wasn't only because the match was played in somewhat blustery conditions on an unseasonably cool August night.
Decked out in a pewter shirt with red accents on the collar, Federer played things close to the vest early against the 25-year-old Gonzalez, the 118th-ranked player who never took part in a Grand Slam event until this year's French Open.
Gonzalez was successful with a serve-and-volley game that produced multiple winners hit behind Federer. Other than their resumes, there was nothing to predict the onslaught that was coming.
Down 3-4 and serving, Gonzalez won a challenge that ultimately produced an ace and got him to 15-all, but Federer converted his third break point of the game when Gonzalez double faulted.
