Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic and French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten won first-round matches at the US Open at Flushing Meadow yesterday while Serena Williams and Justine Henin moved nearer a showdown.
Brazilian top seed Kuerten ousted Czech veteran Daniel Vacek 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 while Ivanisevic fired 25 aces past American wild card Hugo Armando in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 romp before a large and loudly supportive crowd.
"It was great," Ivanisevic said. "I never played a first or second round match with so many people watching me. The crowd was great, so many people. And to win in three sets was great."
Ivanisevic, whose best Grand Slam showing outside of Wimbledon was a 1996 semi-final appearance here, advanced to a second-round match with American qualifier Justin Gimelstob.
The 15th-seeded Croatian, who turns 30 four days after the men's final, stunned the tennis world by winning as a wild card at Wimbledon, defeating Patrick Rafter in last month's final.
Big-serving Ivanisevic, nursing a sore left shoulder, plans to have surgery at the end of the year. But he vows nothing will keep him from defending his crown.
"I maybe show up with one leg to defend at Wimbledon," Ivanisevic said. "It hurts. I take painkillers. But I don't complain. I just go and concentrate and serve my hardest. It was not the best serving day for me but I will try to do better next match."
Three-time French Open champion Kuerten won on his first match point when Vacek sent a backhand long after two hours and 20 minutes. "Guga" smashed 18 aces and 64 winners past Vacek, improving to 56-9 for the year.
"Right now I believe a lot in myself," Kuerten said. "It was a very difficult match. He is very dangerous."
Kuerten, who turns 25 the day after the men's final, booked a second-round match with either Spain's Alberto Martin or Dane Kristian Pless.
Kuerten has struggled in hardcourt events such as this, falling out in last year's first round and never going deeper than the quarter-finals here, that run coming in 1999.
"At least I get to play one more match here," Kuerten said. ""I have to rest now. When I play here it's very tough. Luckily the fans like me and that helps a lot."
Wimbledon runner-up Henin and 1999 US Open champion Williams moved closer to a fourth-round showdown with victories in dramatically different styles.
Sixth seed Henin rallied to defeat former top-10 player Patty Schnyder 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and three minutes while 10th seed Williams routed 43rd-rated Czech Denisa Chladkova 6-1, 6-1 in 44 minutes.
Henin, the 19-year-old Belgian star who lost to Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final, squandered a two-break advantage to capture the first set against Schnyder, who was eighth in the world in 1999 after five 1998 WTA titles.
Schnyder could not convert on seven break-point chances over the final two sets. She hit a forehand winner to capture the tense tie-breaker, but sent a backhand long on match point to hand Henin the victory.
To set up the round of 16 meeting, Williams must next beat Slovakian Martina Sucha, who beat Brazil's Eva Bes 6-2, 6-3, and Henin must defeat either Switzerland's Miroslava Vavrinec or Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus.
Williams made 42 unforced errors in her opening match but trimmed that figure to 12 in overpowering Chladkova.
"I sometimes get nervous in the opening round. I was settling down," Williams said. "I'm actually a better player now than when I won. Winning it, I wanted it more than anyone else. That's how I was able to pull it through. Now I have a better game and just as much desire to bring it in."
Williams won here as the seventh seed, the lowest starting spot for a women's US Open champion in the Open era. Having slid to 10th, Williams is ready to make another run at the top.
"I have been at the same level for a little too long. It's time for me to move on," she said. "I think the next level for me is top three and then top one. Right now I'm worried about the titles. If you win the titles, the ranking will come."
Third seed Lindsay Davenport's 6-0, 6-2 victory over France's Emilie Loit was so lopsided that the loser felt she owed a payment for the lesson.
"At the end I almost went to ask her how much it was," Loit said. "The lesson was so beautiful I thought it was going to cost me a lot." The 25-year-old American fired 10 aces past her 86th-rated foe with only one double fault to win in 42 minutes, never allowing a break-point chance.
Davenport will play for a berth in the round of 16 against Spanish 27th seed Angeles Montolio, who beat Miriam Oremans yesterday..
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