NOTEBOOK U.S. Open

Weathering the storms: Teenager Richard Gasquet weathered the big serves of Ivan Ljubicic to win a third-round match Saturday at the U.S. Open and advance to the round of 16. Ljubicic, the No. 18 seed from Croatia, pounded 20 aces against only six for the winner. Ljubicic also had only three double faults, two fewer than the 13th-seeded Frenchman.
Third-rounders: What do Janko Tipsarevic, Nikki Spear, Slobodan Zivojinovic, Nenad Zimonjic and Novak Djokovic have in common? They are the only Serbian men to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era. Djokovic, playing in his first U.S. Open, and Zivojinovic are the only ones to gain a third-round berth in New York, although the 18-year-old Djokovic also got to third round at Wimbledon.
Streak broken: When Taylor Dent won his second-round match against Nicolas Almagro of Spain, the American became the first men's singles winner to drop a set in Arthur Ashe Stadium. There had been nine successive men's matches decided in straight sets in Ashe during the first four days of the U.S. Open before Dents 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory. On Saturday afternoon both men's matches -- James Blake's victory over Rafael Nadal, and Andre Agassi's win against Tomas Berdych -- went four sets.
Sibling strife: Venus Williams will be trying to pull even in head-to-head play against sister Serena when they meet in the fourth round today. Serena has beaten her older sister seven times in their 13 meetings. Venus won the last time they played, snapping Serena's six-match winning streak. Today's match will be the earliest the sisters have met in a Grand Slam tournament since they played in the second round at the 1998 Australian Open, the first time they faced each other as professionals. They also squared off in the final of four majors: the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2002 and the Australian Open and Wimbedon in 2003.
Associated Press