The 24 year-old from Serbia, now a blistering 58–2 on the year, completed 23 of 30 first serves (77%) including three aces, ripped 14 winners, while committing just seven unforced errors against his clearly over-matched opponent.
Conversely Niland, who was unable to force a break point opportunity against Djokovic's 113 MPH serve (topping out at a reported 125 MPH), got just half of his 30 serves in play, including one ace, was credited with 14 miscues, and somehow got three winners past the relentless Serb in his first US Open and second Grand Slam appearance of his career.
Ferrer, the right-hander from Spain, took full advantage of the 53 unforced errors that Andreev committed while making 38 of his own. In addition he was opportunistic of his six break-point opportunities, converting five of them.
France's Jo-Wilifred Tsonga also advanced to the second round of the US Open with a 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 win over Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu, Tuesday afternoon. The straight-sets victory for the 26-year-old Tsonga was his first win at Flushing since exiting in the fourth round two years ago, which was also his best US Open result after back-to-back third round losses the preceding two years.
Tsonga, ranked as high as sixth near the end of 2008, seemed to set the pace with his 39 winners and 29 unforced errors—compared to 19 and 17 for the unseeded Lu. In addition, his service game was broken just once in the three sets, while he converted four of his nine break point opportunities.
Meanwhile, Lu's loss was his third straight opening-round loss at America’s annual event. The 28-year-old, currently ranked 82nd, was coming off his best Grand Slam result—a third round exit at Wimbledon in June.
The 11th seeded Tsonga, who upset six-time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer at the All-England Club in June, will now face Ukraine's Sergei Bubka in the round of 64.
On the women's side the story was the upset of sixth-seeded Na Li by Romania's Simona Halep 6-2, 7-5. Li, the reigning French Open Champ, also lost in the first round at last year's US Open. "I think it's terrible feeling. I mean, two years in a row, first round here, first round Indian Wells, Miami. I mean, normally I like hard court a lot," said an obviously disappointed Li.
The 29-year-old Li dictated much of the play, as evidenced by her whopping 54 unforced errors, 22 winners, and five huge double faults. The opportunistic Halep, comparatively had just 19 miscues and two double faults, yet only five winners.
The straight sets win for the 19-year-old Halep was also her first at the US Open. Afterwards she ranked the win, relative to her short career: "Yeah, it's a great win for me. It's unbelievable. I feel very good. I played good. I played before a lot of great players, Serena Williams in Wimbledon, Kuznetsova in Toronto. A lot of good matches for me. This one, it's my best. "
