Milos Raonic had trouble at the baseline, but still earned his first U.S. Open victory.
The Thornhill, Ont., native overcame 55 unforced errors including 15 double faults on Tuesday to defeat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Raonic, the No. 15 seed, earned his 34th victory of the season in a match that lasted well over three hours.
"I'm just happy with the outcome and that I managed to make the most of that moment and just find a way to win," said Raonic. "Everything else I've got to hope gets better in the next round."
Raonic had 30 aces, but struggled with unforced errors and converted on only a third of his dozen break points.
"I don't think I struggled with my serve that much in a long, long time. A lot of double faults, and it wasn't just one double fault per game," said Raonic. "I double-faulted consistently a couple times in a row, and that made my job a lot more difficult and it gave him a little bit more freedom at the same time."
Raonic did not play at the U.S. Open in 2011 as he recovered from hip surgery. In 2010 as a qualifier, he was beaten by Australian Carsten Ball in his debut at a major.
On Tuesday, Raonic found himself down 2-1, but tied the match with a break in the final game of the fourth set as Giraldo fired wide.
The match finished with a Raonic break of Giraldo on a forehand error from the Colombian.
He will play Paul-Henri Mathieu of France for the first time in the second round of the tournament.
Roddick, Berdych advance to 2nd round
Andy Roddick served 20 aces to defeat 21-year-old American qualifier Rhyne Williams 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the U.S. Open.
Roddick, seeded 20th, won the last 16 points on his serve and finished the match with a 204-kilometre ace.
It was a tough way to make a Grand Slam debut for Williams, the NCAA runner-up in 2011, who won three matches in qualifying, then learned he had a first-round matchup with the 2003 champion.
Williams, ranked 289th coming into the week, put in a respectable performance, but dropped a break in each set. He'll still earn $23,000 US as a first-round loser in the year's final Grand Slam.
Sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open with a straight-set win.
Berdych beat 56th-ranked David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. The 21-year-old Goffin had reached a career-high ranking after making the round of 16 at the French Open and the third round at Wimbledon. He was making his U.S. Open debut.
Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up from the Czech Republic, has never been past the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows.
Goffin converted just 2-of-18 break points. Berdych had 17 aces and 40 winners.
Polish star dominant in opener
Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska needed just 54 minutes to advance to the second round, beating Nina Bratchikova of Russia 6-1, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 91st-ranked Bratchikova had 28 unforced errors to only six for Radwanska.
The Polish star is coming off her first Grand Slam final, a three-set loss to Serena Williams at Wimbledon. She has never made it past the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. Radwanska retired from her previous match with a sore shoulder while trailing qualifier Olga Govortsova in her opener at New Haven.
Bratchikova was making her U.S. Open debut, but reached the third round at the Australian and French this year.
Venus Williams overcame an early deficit for an easy win in her return to the U.S. Open.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of the tournament before her second-round match last year because of an autoimmune disease. Williams was back Tuesday, and she beat fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 6-1.
Williams, unseeded with a ranking of No. 46, was broken in her first game. But after going down 0-2 in the first set, she won 12 of the last 14 games.
Mattek-Sands is ranked 212th after a series of injuries this year and got in on a wild card.
At age 32, Williams has been learning to deal with the effects of Sjogren's syndrome, which causes exhaustion and joint pain.
Sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber moved on easily to set up a second-round match with Venus.
The German beat Britain's Anne Keothavong 6-2, 6-0 in 54 minutes Tuesday. Keothavong, ranked 81st, had 25 unforced errors to Kerber's nine.
Ranked outside the top 100 at the start of 2010, Kerber is now a career-best sixth. She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at Flushing Meadows last year.
In other results:
No. 12 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia defeated Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 6-2.
Ivanovic is coming off a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Roberta Vinci at a tuneup match in Montreal.
Fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced in the men's draw with a 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (2) victory over Karol Beck of Slovakia.
No. 4 Serena Williams and No. 2 Novak Djokovic, the defending men's champion, all had matches later in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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