Close to losing in the U.S. Open's first round for the first time, Venus Williams came all the way back from a set and a break down to beat 47th-ranked Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3 last night.
Williams, the No.3 seed and twice the champion at Flushing Meadows, had her left knee bandaged by a trainer after the third game. She also had plenty of trouble serving: She piled up 10 double-faults and was called for seven foot-faults.
Asked during a postmatch interview on the court what it's going to take for her knee to be better for the second round, Williams told the crowd: "A lot of prayer. It's going to be a lot of prayer. Everything I can throw at it. But, you know, I'm tough."
Dushevina broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set and was three points from winning at 5-4. But Williams won the next seven games.
Still, there was a bit of shakiness left. Up 4-0 in the third set, Williams dropped three games in a row before righting herself again.
The 2-hour, 43-minute match did serve as the most intriguing encounter of a Day 1 that included victories for defending champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams, Venus' younger sister.
Kim Clijsters, who recently came out of retirement, won her first match at the U.S. Open since claiming her lone Grand Slam title in New York in 2005.
Venus Williams was in trouble after Dushevina took the last four points of the first set after trailing 5-3 in the tiebreaker. Williams led by that score when she pounded an apparent service winner, one that would have given her a 6-3 lead and three set points.
But a line judge called Williams for a foot fault, her fourth. She seemed to lose her focus, turning to the official to ask, "Which foot?" When Williams went back to the baseline for the second serve, she netted it for a double-fault.
The second set featured more of the same, as Williams fell behind 3-1, then trailed 5-4. But she broke Dushevina there with a backhand winner, and began to hit her spots more.
Yesterday morning's setting was a familiar one for Clijsters, whose lone Grand Slam championship came at Flushing Meadows on Sept. 10, 2005. That was the last time she played at the U.S. Open, and while the site was the same, the circumstances and the stakes were oh-so-different.
Clijsters' 6-1, 6-1 victory over 79th-ranked Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine came in the first round, the 26-year-old Belgian's first Grand Slam match since January 2007. In the intervening two-plus years, Clijsters retired, got married and, in May 2008, gave birth to a daughter. Once No. 1, she came to the U.S. Open unranked and needed a wild-card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association.
"Little more nervous than usual. It's a very special court to me, but I really enjoyed it," Clijsters said. "I felt really good out there."
By beating 18-year-old NCAA champion Devin Britton of Jackson, Miss., 6-1, 6-3, 7-5, Federer ran his winning streak to 35 matches at the tournament and became the first tennis player to surpass $50 million in career prize money. Serena Williams also beat an American teenager in straight sets, eliminating Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach, Calif., 6-4, 6-1.
Other winners included John Isner, the 6-9 American who is from Greensboro who knocked off No. 28-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania in straight sets, including a 16-14 tiebreaker in the second; No. 21 James Blake; and French Open runner-up Robin Soderling.
Two-time major champion Amelie Mauresmo won easily, as did No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 8 Victoria Azarenka, No. 10 Flavia Pennetta, No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 14 Marion Bartoli, whose next opponent is Clijsters.
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