Venus struggles with serve, knee, opponent at U.S. Open

NEW YORK (AP) — Venus Williams was bothered by a bad knee and distracted by more than a half-dozen foot faults. What never fazed her: a big deficit.

Quite close to losing in the U.S. Open’s first round for the first time, 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 Monday night.

The No. 3-seeded Williams, twice the champion at Flushing Meadows, had her left knee bandaged by a trainer after the third game. The American 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 court what it’s going to take for her knee to be better for the second round, Williams said: “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.”

She sure proved that on this night.

Dushevina broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set and was three points from winning at 5-4. But Williams, who never has lost in the U.S. Open’s first round, 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 once again.

One measure of how big an upset this would have been: Williams owns seven Grand Slam titles; Dushevina only once has been as far as the fourth round at a major tournament. And then there’s this: Williams entered Monday 43-3 in first-round matches at tennis’ top four tournaments, including 10-0 at the U.S. Open.

Even though Williams improved those marks in the end, the match did serve as the most intriguing encounter of a Day 1 that included victories for defending champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams.

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.

Clijsters’ 6-1, 6-1 victory over 79th-ranked Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine came in 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.

She hit seven aces against Kutuzova, and won 60 of the 88 points. There also were some mistakes and some rust, including four double-faults.

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. Williams also beat an American teenager in straight sets, eliminating Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach, Calif., 6-4, 6-1.

“Tricky match for me, playing a guy who’s got absolutely nothing to lose,” said Federer, seeking a sixth consecutive U.S. Open title.

No one has done that since Bill Tilden won the American Grand Slam tournament every year from 1920-25.

“That’s what I’m here for, trying to equal Bill Tilden’s record. But I’ve never met Bill Tilden. Never saw him play. So it’s hard to kind of relate to him in any way, except through records,” Federer said. “It’s fantastic to be sort of compared to someone who played such a long time ago, I guess.”

Other winners included John Isner, the 6-foot-9 American 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.

Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, also just so happens to have been the first woman Clijsters played in her comeback. Clijsters beat her.

“I just have to go on court and think I’m still the player with the better ranking, so I’m supposed to win,” Bartoli said Monday. “This time I know what to do. I have a plan, so it’s going to be different.”