Roddick Celebrates Birthday In Style; Soderling, Monfils Taken To Five Sets

© Getty ImagesRobin Soderling fought past Austrian qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer in five sets.

ATP World Tour No. 9 Andy Roddick celebrated his 28th birthday in style on Monday as he reached the second round of the US Open with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Frenchman Stephane Robert.

The American, who lifted the US Open trophy in 2003 (d. Ferrero), impressed in his opening match as he fired 30 winners and broke serve six times from nine opportunities to prevail in one hour and 42 minutes.

Roddick improved his ATP-best hard-court record to 34-7 in 2010, having triumphed in Brisbane (d. Stepanek) and Miami (d. Berdych) earlier in the season, as well as reaching the finals in San Jose (l. to Verdasco) and Indian Wells (l. to Ljubicic). His progress was slowed in recent months after contracting mononucleosis, but the Texan began to regain his top form in Cincinnati two weeks ago with a semi-final showing (l. to Fish). Roddick next will face Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who came from a set down to defeat Belgian Olivier Rochus 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(0), 6-2.

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Fifth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling survived a big scare as he let slip a two-set lead against Austrian qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer before prevailing 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(2), 5-7, 6-4 in just under four hours. Soderling was hindered by committing 74 unforced errors and was forced to call on all his experience to defeat the No. 214-ranked Haider-Maurer, who was making his Grand Slam debut.

The 26-year-old Soderling avoided suffering his second defeat in the first round of a Grand Slam this season, having fallen to Marcel Granollers in his opening match at the Australian Open. The Tibro native performed strongly at the following two Grand Slams, reaching his second straight final at Roland Garros and posting a quarter-final showing at Wimbledon; he lost to Rafael Nadal both times.

Soderling will face Taylor Dent for a place in the third round after the American won 70 per cent of points behind his first serve to defeat Colombian Alejandro Falla 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 in just over two hours. The 29-year-old Dent has reached the third round on his previous two appearances at Flushing Meadows in 2009 (l. to Murray) and 2005 (l. to Hewitt); his best result was a fourth-round showing in 2003 (l. to Agassi).

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French No. 17 seed Gael Monfils and Austrian No. 13 seed Jurgen Melzer both also came through testing first-round clashes. The 23-year-old Monfils battled past American Robert Kendrick 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4 in three hours and 19 minutes to set up a clash with Russian Igor Andreev, a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 winner over Horacio Zeballos.

"Today was not a good day for me," confessed Monfils. "I was fighting against myself, so tried to be like more aggressive, tried to play my game. I think today I was pretty flat. But I'm happy I come through, and I just give myself second chance to practice hard tomorrow and to be better on Wednesday. I'm quite happy for that."

The 29-year-old Melzer, who reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros (l. to Soderling) in May, was taken the distance by Russian Dmitry Tursunov before winning 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2.

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Upcoming Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker, who was profiled in the latest edition of DEUCE Magazine (On The Rise), built on his semi-final showing in New Haven last week by defeating France’s Marc Gicquel 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 on his US Open debut. The 21 year old goes on to face Croatian Ivan Dodig, who advanced at the expense of Chilean No. 27 seed Fernando Gonzalez, who retired with a knee injury with the score at 6-7(2), 6-1, 1-0 in Dodig’s favour.