No. 1 Djokovic rolls as U.S. Open begins
Defending champion Novak Djokovic cruised through his first-round match at the U.S. Open on Monday, beating Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 in New York.
Djokovic, a 32-year-old Serbian, is the tournament's top seed after having won four of the last five major championships -- Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2018, and the Australian Open and the French Open in 2019. His only defeat in a Grand Slam event during that span came in the semifinals of the French Open this year against Austria's Dominic Thiem.
The latest match victory wasn't much of a challenge for Djokovic. He never faced a break point, and he converted four of his 11 break opportunities.
Djokovic's win was typical of the results for seeded men's players on the first afternoon of the U.S. Open. The only seed to fall in early action was No. 11 Fabio Fognini of Italy, who lost 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 to Reilly Opelka of the United States.
The lone glitch for Opelka was squandering a match point at 5-6 in the third-set tiebreaker. He came back to grab the only service break of the fourth set for a 3-1 lead, then closed out the match.
Opelka, a 6-foot-11 Michigan native who is appearing in the U.S. Open's main draw for the first time, earned his first ATP Tour title at the New York Open in February. He served 26 aces Monday to Fognini's 16.
"(My game plan) was just to be as offensive as I can, play my game as much as I can," Opelka said, according to TennisNow.com. "Even though he's a great returner, (I had) to stay calm and know he's gonna have his high moments and low moments and just play every point and try to play a complete match as much as possible."
As a result of the win, he next will play a second-round match against either Spain's Jaume Munar or German qualifier Dominik Koepfer on Wednesday, Opelka's 22nd birthday.
Also earning a win in his U.S. Open main-draw debut was 18-year-old Californian Jenson Brooksby, who upset Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Berdych was once ranked as high as No. 4 in the world but is now No. 98.
Brooksby, who is ranked No. 394 and came through qualifying last week, won the U.S. national 18-and-under title last year. He has a full scholarship to Baylor pending.
"I haven't decided whether I'm still going to college or not, it's still up in the air," Brooksby said after the victory. "I'll see where the rest of the tournament ends up, and then also where my ranking is in the next two months after this. The more I win here, the more likely it could go in the other direction."
Other first-round winners Monday included fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia, seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, 12th-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia, 15th-seeded David Goffin of Belgium and 17th-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.
Third-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland, a five-time U.S. Open champion, was scheduled to oppose Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal on Monday night.
--Field Level Media
