Kim Clijsters serves notice that her retirement is O-V-E-R!
There were a few surprises on Day 1 at the 2009 United States Open Championships – some good and some bad. Let’s start with Kim Clijsters who wasn’t just good, she was great. It wasn’t that long ago that the 2005 U.S. Open Champion retired to have babies.
Well sheeeee’s back! The former number two player in the world put on a clinic at the Open on Day 1 with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Viktoria Kutuzova. She will be heavily favored in her next round against the Frenchwoman, 14th seeded Marion Bartoli. It’s hard to determine whether Clijsters is just that good or if the state of the game could use some help.
By winning his first round match on Day 1 at the U.S. Open, top-seeded Roger Federer became the first and only person in tennis history to win a record $50 million dollars in prize money. This was also his 35th straight win at the U.S. Open.
Andy Roddick doesn’t have quite the same resume as Federer, but he also breezed into the second round of the U.S. Open with a late night straight sets victory over Bjorn Phau 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Not to be outdone, Serena Williams also booked her space into the second round of the U.S. Open with a straight sets victory of her own.
Her Big Sis, Venus Williams, had anything but an easy time -- as she had to dig deep to stave off elimination. She displayed the heart of a lion during the late night edition of Day 1 at the Open. Venus overcame a left knee issue and a spirited effort by Vera Dushevina by limping to a 3-set victory in their late night contest. It was later reported that Venus had issues with her left knee throughout the summer and tweaked it at the beginning of her match.
15th seeded Samantha Stosur nearly missed the second round after eaking out a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 over Japan’s Ai Sugiyama. It was the same story for Tommy Haas who overcame an afternoon of shaky play by barely beating Columbian qualifier Alejandro Falla.
Day Two provides some interesting matchups including a tough first round opponent for Novak Djokovic who faces former world number 3, Ivan Ljubicic. Djokovic leads their head-to-head meetings by a count of 3 to 1, but their matches are usually quite close. This match could go five sets and Novak needs to be on his toes for this one.
Second seeded Andy Murray faces the volatile Latvian named Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis has a big game that still hasn’t reached its potential and he is unlikely to have his coming out party against the likes of Murray.
The woman’s top seed, Dinara Safina is in action on Day 2 along with the fourth seed, Elena Dementieva. Neither one of these woman should be stressed out by their early round matches. The real trick for them would be overcoming anyone sporting the last name of Williams.
