It was an exciting start to the US Open, with Federer hitting another masterpiece shot between his legs in his easy straight sets win against Dabul, Monfils and Soderling showing why they are top players and not their lesser-known opponents, and Mathieu doing some justice to his talent by “upsetting” Leyton Hewitt in five sets.

Five sets is the big reminder that this is a slam which both Monfils and Soderling were well aware of yesterday. Monfils was pushed to his utmost against American Kendrick. Kendrick were close to winning, and had two points to go up 3-1 in the final set, but nerves came over him and Monfils fought back and managed to take the set and the match 6-4. He didn’t show fantastic form, but he did show some resiliance and takes you a long way.

Soderling also showed resiliance against an inspired and 214-ranked Haider-Maruer who was blasting winners and aces everywhere. Soderling had to get down and dirty, because he was far from playing his best tennis. In the end he showed why he is now a great player – he found a way to win (6-4 in the fifth).

Talking about five sets, Melzer had to go the distance in the match against Tursunov. He won the first two then got into a slump and lost two sets before winning the fifth 6-2. Quite an uneven affair, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the players involved.

Then we had the easy ones of course, the players that didn’t drop a lot of games and far from a whole set.

Roddick looked convincing, Davydenko proved me wrong to doubt him, Ferrero gave away 4 games in total, Cilic and Gasquet did what we expected of them, and so on.

Now I am looking forward Fognini vs Verdasco (can be tighter than you would think, considering Verdasco’s damaged confidence) and Ferrer vs Dolgopolov, Stepanek vs Benneteau, and Chardy vs Gulbis.

The fun has begun!

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