New York — Andy Murray survived a tight first-set struggle to win in straight sets Wednesday, progressing to the second round of the US Open as the upsets began to mount in a severely diminished women’s draw.
The fourth-seeded Scot won 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-3 against India’s Somdev Devvarman, setting up a second-round meeting with Dutchman Robin Haase.
All the seeded men in action Wednesday won, with the exception of No.10 Nicolas Almagro, who was comfortably beaten 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 by France’s Julien Benneteau.
It was a different story in the women’s draw, where several seeds were eliminated in second-round action, and former champion Venus Williams withdraw from the tournament, citing an auto-immune illness.
Williams’ withdrawal added to the decimation of a women’s draw that was already shorn of the three Grand Slam tournament winners this year: the injured Kim Clijsters, and early eliminations Li Na and Petra Kvitova.
Former Wimbledon finalist and No.8 seed Marion Bartoli lost, beaten 7-6 (2), 6-2 by young American Christina McHale. No.12 Agnieszka Radwanska went down 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
Dominika Cibulkova and Yanina Wickmayer were the other seeded casualties.
Cibulkova suffered a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 loss to American Irina Falconi and Wickmayer retired when trailing 6-1, 3-0 against Russian Alla Kudryatseva.
Zvonareva, Sharapova advance
Russian title hopefuls Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova avoided the carnage, progressing to the third round in contrasting fashion. Second-seeded Zvonareva had a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 struggle against Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko while Sharapova swept imperiously past Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-1, 6-1.
Zvonareva’s third-round opponent will be Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues while Sharapova will meet Italian No.26 seed Flavia Pennetta.
Australian Sam Stosur also won through, beating American CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-4 and will take on Russian No. 24 Nadia Petrova in round three.
Williams revealed she recently was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, which doctors say is usually not life-threatening.
“I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon,” said Williams, who has played only 11 matches in the last 11 months.
Roddick advances
Another American, Andy Roddick held on to beat 96th-ranked compatriot Michael Russell 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 . Enduring a rough season filled with injuries, No. 21 Roddick dropped out of the top 20 in the rankings for the first time in 10 years.
“Wasn’t pretty,” said Roddick, who fell behind by a break in the fourth set against before coming back to close out Russell, a player now 0-7 at the U.S. Open and 6-23 at all Grand Slam tournaments. “I’m certainly not fooling myself by thinking that was worthy of a championship performance, by any means.”
Among Wednesday’s winners was 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who didn’t try to defend his title last year because of a wrist injury. Two-time French Open semifinalist Robin Soderling of Sweden, meanwhile, pulled out shortly before his first-round match Wednesday, citing stomach pain and a headache. AP