Back on track, Andy aces forward

He simply began walking to the net for the handshake after an unusually brisk 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 loss in 87 minutes, and Roddick’s best tennis night in “four or five months” — his words — had a little downer of an ending. “To end it like that, it was kind of, I guess, disappointing,” Roddick said.

On the penultimate point at 30-love, Roddick had blasted a 140-mph serve for a 14th ace and a first attempt to decapitate Santoro, well, at least if you’re asking Santoro. The ball whirred over Santoro’s head as he ducked, and later he blithely called himself “a little bit disappointed” with the serve, called Roddick “a good guy” but said, “He served right at me for sure, yeah. That’s a good strategy sometimes,” but not given the runaway score.

Roddick said he’d aimed for the “T” but missed and said, “It was a bad miss, but it was a miss that I hit pretty hard.” Even as he prepares to play the onrushing Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second round, and consults Patrick McEnroe anew for short-term guidance, Roddick said he would seek out Santoro in ensuing days to reiterate he had not used him for target practice.

Venus powers into Round 3

On Thursday, Venus Williams kept favourites on the fast track at the US Open, overwhelming Rossana de Los Rios in less than an hour to reach the third round.

Williams, the US Open winner in 2000 and 2001, did not get much of a workout in the 59-minute match against the 113-ranked De Los Rios, 32, who has never gone beyond the second round at Flushing Meadows. In the third round, Williams will meet Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina overcame a couple of concentration lapses to defeat Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. Safina established a 3-0 lead in the opening set and a 3-1 advantage in the second but each time seemed to lose her focus, allowing a scrambling Vinci to break back. However, Safina averted the danger by outclassing Vinci with her powerful serves and groundstrokes.

Rohan-Aisam crash out

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his doubles partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan crashed out of the US Open doubles in the first round with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to the French pair of Marc Gicquel and Sebastien Grosjean.