Despite boasting 34 Grand Slam singles titles between them, Serena Williams and Roger Federer were forced to share the spotlight with a 15-year-old at the US Open on Tuesday as all three advanced to the second round.
American wild card Catherine Bellis, the youngest player in the draw, took her place alongside the five-times US champions by stunning 12th seeded Australian Open finalist Dominica Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
The second-seeded Federer, looking to extend his record men's haul of Slam titles to 18, posted a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Australian Marinko Matosevic as the 33-year-old's boyhood idol Michael Jordan looked on. Williams advanced 6-3, 6-1 over unseeded fellow American Taylor Townsend as she followed Federer onto the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to cap the second day of the championships.
Should she go on to win the tournament, the two-times defending champion would join Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in fourth place on the all-time list of women's Grand Slam singles champions with 18 titles apiece.
"I can just build on this," said Williams, who has had a disappointing Slam season. Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and runner-up Eugenie Bouchard launched their Open campaigns with a bang, blasting by their respective first-round opponents.
Bopanna-Quereshi exit
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam Qureshi crashed out in the men’s doubles first round on Tuesday. The 13th-seeded pair, lost 6-7 (10-12), 6-4, 6-7 (5-7) to the unseeded Italian pair of Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi.
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