Canadian Milos Raonic advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open in straight sets on Thursday.
The Thornhill, Ont., native was a 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (4) winner over French veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu, firing 30 aces in the process.
Raonic is the first Canadian male to get this far in this event in 24 years. Montreal's Martin Laurendeau, who now captains Canada's Davis Cup squad, reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 1988.
"I played much better today than in the first round, as far as the basics go," Raonic said. "But I still need to do quite a few things better. "The two breaks I got, I played good points each time. But I wasn't happy with my return games, I wasn't doing enough with the ball."
Raonic, seeded 15th, will next face James Blake. The 32-year-old American reached the third round at a Grand Slam event for the first time since 2010 with a dominant victory over 24th-seeded Marcel Granollers. Blake needed just 97 minutes to win 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Blake needed a wild card to get into the Open after his ranking fell outside the top 100.
Raonic beat Blake in their only previous meeting. He is looking to go beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
"I do feel good about my game, I'm getting better and better," Raonic said. "I now have two days to get even better."
After three days of the top players not only winning but winning decisively, fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was upset by Martin Klizan of Slovakia in the second round. The 52nd-ranked Klizan won 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday.
Before Tsonga's loss, top-five seeds on the men's and women's sides had played 14 matches — and won all 14 in straight sets.
Tsonga was the runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon this year. He had reached at least the third round in 18 straight Grand Slam trips.
"Today I was not in a good shape," he said. "I didn't play good tennis. It seemed like I couldn't hit the ball enough hard to put my opponent out of position. I don't really know why it was like this today, but sometimes it's happen with me."
The 23-year-old Klizan, meanwhile, had failed to make it past the second round in three previous Grand Slam appearances. He had never defeated an opponent ranked better than No. 49.
"I had no pressure," Klizan said. "If I lose, then I lose. I lose with (a) good player. But I won and I'm very happy. It means for me more that I beat finally a guy from top 10."
Venus Williams closed out her Grand Slam season with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 second-round loss to sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber that ended early Friday.
Williams, the 2000 and 2001 champion at Flushing Meadows, finished with 60 unforced errors. The match lasted 2 hours, 45 minutes.
She finished the year with only two victories at the Grand Slam events — one at the French Open and another at Flushing Meadows.
Last year, Williams departed the U.S. Open before her second-round match, suffering with Sjogren's syndrome, an illness that causes joint pain and fatigue.
On Thursday, Williams lost serve twice in the second set but came back both times to win and force a third set. But she lost serve at 5-5 and Kerber served out the set for the win.
Top-seeded Roger Federer used a second-round victory in the U.S. Open to work on his net game, winning 32 points from the front of the court in the previous night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium in a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Bjorn Phau of Germany.
Federer also finished with 15 aces in a 90-minute victory over his 83rd-ranked opponent.
The Swiss star improved his U.S. Open record to 63-7 and stayed in the mix for his sixth U.S. Open title, which would be a record in the Open era.
Federer's third-round match is against No. 25 Fernando Verdasco.
This year's Open has generated plenty of drama in one area: comebacks from two sets down. American Mardy Fish rallied to beat Nikolay Davydenko 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, the 10th time in this tournament a man has won after losing the first two sets — already an Open record.
The 30-year-old Fish, seeded 23rd, missed two months this season because of an accelerated heartbeat but showed few signs of fatigue in playing nearly 3 ½ hours.
And after Tsonga lost, another top-five seed was at least pushed beyond a straight-sets finish. Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska was down a set and a break to 39th-ranked Carla Suarez Navarro. Then she won 11 straight games for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory.
Serena Williams beat old nemesis Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in straight sets.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion won 6-2, 6-4. Williams overcame six double-faults and 24 unforced errors. The fourth-seeded American had 32 winners to five for Martinez Sanchez.
In the 2009 French Open third round, Williams hit a ball she was sure went off Martinez Sanchez's arm, then said the Spaniard cheated by not acknowledging it.
Martinez Sanchez has been ranked as high as 19th but is at No. 108 after struggling with a right thigh injury this year.
Williams next faces 42nd-ranked Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
Jack Sock also reached the third round at a major tournament for the first time. The 19-year-old from Nebraska beat Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
Sock, ranked 248th, got in with a wild card. He saved 12 of the 13 break points he faced, while converting all six he earned on the 88th-ranked Cipolla's serve.
Next up is a meeting with No. 11 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, a 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Philipp Petzschner.
A week before the start of the Open, Ana Ivanovic couldn't walk without pain in her right foot.
"That's when I started to panic a little bit," she said.
Two matches into the tournament, the 2008 French Open champion is feeling healthy — and relaxed. The 12th-seeded Ivanovic and another Serbian former top-ranked player, Jelena Jankovic, have quietly reached the third round at Flushing Meadows. Each has dropped just nine games through a pair straight-set wins.
Ivanovic beat 51st-ranked Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday. Jankovic, seeded 30th, defeated 115th-ranked Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain 6-4, 6-2.
Asked if the torn tendon is fully healed, Ivanovic laughed and said, "I still have a handful of pills every morning."
But the foot hasn't been hurting since the tournament started, and Ivanovic's draw is looking fairly painless with Caroline Wozniacki and Francesca Schiavone eliminated in her quarter.
Ivanovic has been trying to regain her health and her confidence for the last four years. She has yet to make it back to even a quarterfinal of a Grand Slam event.
"I'm really motivated. I want to get back to the top and back in contention to win Grand Slams again," Ivanovic said. "It's been a long process of getting my mind there and my body and game and everything together. Still, it's going to be a lot of hard work and long process, but I'm starting to enjoy it as well.
"I know if it doesn't happen this week, it's coming."
In other results:
Men's singles
Second round
- Feliciano Lopez (30), Spain, def. Pablo Andujar, Spain, 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 7-5.
- Marin Cilic (12), Croatia, def. Daniel Brands, Germany, 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 7-5.
- Jeremy Chardy (32), France, def. Matthew Ebden, Australia, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
- Tomas Berdych (6), Czech Republic, def. Jurgen Zopp, Estonia, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
- Gilles Simon (16), France, def. Jimmy Wang, Taiwan, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
- Sam Querrey (27), United States, def. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, Spain, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
Women's singles
Second Round
- Maria Kirilenko (14), Russia, def. Greta Arn, Hungary, 6-3, 6-2.
- Dominika Cibulkova (13), Slovakia, def. Bojana Jovanovski, Serbia, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3).
- Andrea Hlavackova, Czech Republic, def. Galina Voskoboeva, Kazakhstan, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3.
- Tsvetana Pironkova, Bulgaria, def. Ayumi Morita, Japan, 7-5, 6-2.
- Ekaterina Makarova, Russia, def. Elena Vesnina, Russia, 6-3, 6-4.
- Silvia Soler-Espinosa, Spain, def. Irina-Camelia Begu, Romania, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
- Agnieszka Radwanska (2), Poland, def. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
- Roberta Vinci (20), Italy, def. Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
- Sara Errani (10), Italy, def. Vera Dushevina, Russia, 6-0, 6-1.
- Sloane Stephens, United States, def. Tatjana Malek, Germany, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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