Holder Rafa Nadal saved seven set points in the second set and battled back from two breaks down in the third to beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3 7-6 7-5 in his opening match at the US Open.
Nadal was far from his best but raised his game at critical points, reeling off the last five games in succession to subdue the surprising Golubev, who came to Flushing Meadows with a 6-24 record this year.
Golubev dictated points by moving inside the baseline to slash groundstrokes into both corners and make deft use of the drop shot against the French Open champion.
Ten-times Grand Slam winner, Nadal showed his championship class in roaring back from 2-5 down in the third set after winning the second-set tiebreak 7-1.
“I was a little bit lucky to win in straight sets,” Nadal said in an on court interview after the two hour, 49 minute match. “He was a very difficult player to play. He played very fast.”
Fifth seed David Ferrer came from a set down to defeat Igor Andreev of Russia 2-6 6-3 6-0 6-4 on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The Spaniard looked sluggish early on, but arrested his slump to hit back in the second set, before completing an emphatic bagel in the third.
Ferrer will next take on James Blake after the American’s 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-4 win over Jesse Huta Galung of the Netherlands.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga swept past Yen-Hsun Lu in straight sets, 6-4 6-4 6-4 on Grandstand with a typically powerful performance.
Tsonga always looked to have too much class for his hard-working opponent, and the 11th seed will next take on Sergey Bubka Jr., who beat Andreas Haider-Maurer in his first-round clash.
Mikhail Youzhny of Russia crashed out in the first round, losing to the mercurial Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in straight sets, 6-2 6-4 6-4.
The 16th seed’s defeat sees Gulbis progress to face Gilles Muller, who saw off Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 7-6(5) 6-4 6-4.
Stanislas Wawrinka did not suffer the same fate, however, with the Swiss 14th seed recovering from a set down to defeat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina 3-6 6-4 6-1 6-3 to set up a clash with Donald Young of the USA.
It was a much better day for the unseeded Nikolay Davydenko, who dumped out Ivan Dodig of Croatia – the 32nd seed – in five sets.
Dodig clinched the opening set before losing the next two 6-3 6-0, respectively, and despite taking the fourth 6-2, the Croat was blown away by the same score in the fifth.
Potito Starace of Italy will be Davydenko’s next opponent in the second round.
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