2012 U.S. Open: Novak Djokovic Cruises, Caroline Wozniacki Upset

The 2012 U.S. Open continues in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., as second-round play begins for some of the marquee names. Other headliners will be playing their first match of the tournament on Day 3.

Women’s top seed Victoria Azarenka takes to the court for her second-round match at 11 a.m. ET in Arthur Ashe Stadium. She will face unseeded Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.

The night session of the 2012 U.S. Open saw a number of upsets on Tuesday, and it was capped off when women’s No. 21 Christina McHale was upended by unseeded Dutch player Kiki Bertens in a hard-fought three set battle, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

McHale’s exit wasn’t the only surprising result on the day. Men’s No. 10 Juan Monaco went down to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a lengthy five-set match that saw the underdog Garcia-Lopez come back from two sets down to win.

No. 4 on the women’s side, Serena Williams, continued her impressive summer run as she breezed through her opening-round match against fellow American Coco Vandeweghe.

Williams remarked before the match that she thought Vandeweghe had a superior serve. Either Williams was being nice, or she is far better in the return game. Probably a mixture of both.

The No. 8-seed on the women’s side, Caroline Wozniacki has been upset by unseeded Irina-Camelia Begu in her opening-round match of the 2012 U.S. Open. Wozniacki put up very little fight, as Begu won in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2.

Wozniacki has been troubled by a knee injury, and she was tended to by a trainer in the middle of the second set. She struggled mightily on the night, amassing only four winners compared to 22 unforced errors.

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic had little trouble advancing through his first-round match agains Paolo Lorenzi of Italy. Djokovic was dominant, winning in straight sets and losing just two games overall.

Lorenzi broke Djovovic in the first game, but that was his only chance at a break point for the rest of the match. Djokovic won nine break points in cruising to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 victory. He also served seven aces without double-faulting. Lorenzi was unable to get any easy points, as he did not win a single ace and posted seven double-faults.

Argentina’s Juan Monaco was stunned by unseeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a grueling five-set battle at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday afternoon. Garcia-Lopez eked out the victory, 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3).

Monaco, ranked 11th in the ATP rankings coming into U.S. Open play, came out of the gates hot, winning the first two sets. But he dropped the third set to Spain’s Garcia-Lopez, opening the door to the upset bid. The fourth set went to a tiebreaker, and the Spaniard prevailed again, winning after several unforced errors by Monaco.

Despite dropping the opening set of the match, American Sam Querrey fought back to post a four-set victory (6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5) over Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu on Tuesday in the first round at the 2012 U.S. Open.

The 24-year-old Querrey recorded an impressive 21 aces in the win, and was especially sharp with his serve down the stretch. After succumbing to an extremely high six double-faults in the first set, Querrey quickly corrected his issues with a 31-minute victory in Set 2, where he hit on 63% of his first serves. From there, the American feasted on Lu’s prodding second serve, as he was able to break Lu in sets three and four to come away victorious.

American Venus Williams rolled past Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Tuesday to advance past the first round of the 2012 U.S. Open with posture. Williams defeated Mattek-Sands in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1.

It didn’t start off as planned, as Williams struggled to begin her match against Mattek-Sands. But she rebounded in what CBS Sports’ Brian Stubits called “vintage Venus” fashion, taking 15 of the next 16 points to put it away.

15th-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic narrowly avoided becoming the fist big upset victim on the men’s side of the draw at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. Raonic defeated Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Raonic struggled with his first serve all day, only landing 54% in play and racking up 15 double faults. In addition to his serving struggles, Raonic committed 55 total unforced errors. Raonic will advance to play Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the second round.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man who beat Raonic in the longest tennis match in Olympic history in London, also advanced on Tuesday, but in a much easier fashion. The fifth-seeded Frenchman beat Slovakia’s Karol Beck 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2). Tsonga will face Martin Klizan of Slovakia in the second round.

No. 6-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic easily moved onto the second round of the 2012 U.S. Open Tuesday, as he defeated first-round opponent David Goffin of Belgium in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. Berdych advances to face Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp in the second round. Zopp knocked off Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in his first-round match.

Berdych is playing in his ninth U.S. Open, where he’s never gotten past the fourth round, an accomplishment he did in 2004, ‘06 and ‘07. The furthest Berdych ever advanced in a major championship was in 2010 when he reached the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. Zapp is playing in his first U.S. Open.

Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanka of Poland easily advanced in her opening-round match at the 2012 U.S. Open on Tuesday, defeating Russia’s Nina Bratchikova in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. Radwanska dominated Bratchikova, winning six of seven break points and only hitting six errors to Bratchikova’s 28. She will move on to play Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro, who advanced after her opponent, Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan, retired; Navarro was leading 7-5, 1-2 at the time.

2012 has been an up-and-down year for Radwanska, who reached her first ever Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, where she lost to Serena Williams, but followed that performance up with a first-round loss at the London Olympics. Radwanksa has never advanced past the fourth round at the U.S. Open, but hopes to change that this year.

No. 2 Novak Djokovic

No. 7 Juan Martin Del Potro

No. 10 Juan Monaco

No. 14 Alexandr Dolgopolov

No. 18 Stanislas Wawrinka

No. 7 Juan Martin Del Potro vs. David Nalbandian. It’s Argentina vs. Argentina in this one. The 30-year-old Nalbandian has won three of four career matches versus the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (and 2009 U.S. Open champion), but the two haven’t played since 2008. This is also a form-check match of sorts; Del Potro has been battling left wrist problems for a little while now.

No. 4 David Ferrer

No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic

No. 9 John Isner

No. 13 Richard Gasquet

No. 19 Philipp Kohlschreiber

No. 4 David Ferrer vs. Kevin Anderson. The thing about tennis draws is that, while the top 32 players are seeded and evenly distributed throughout the field, No. 33 is randomly placed in the draw, as are other high-quality players. A top seed in no way earns you an easy first-round match, and Ferrer’s reward for the No. 4 seed is drawing the world’s No. 35 player. At 6’8, Anderson is almost a full foot taller than Ferrer, but Ferrer has built a career out of slaying Goliaths. This match should be an aesthetic treat, as almost no matchup in tennis will provide more physical and stylistic contrast than this one.

The final major of the tennis season started Monday at the 2012 U.S. Open. We’re previewing each section of the draw. Up next: The Williams Region.

No. 4 Serena Williams

No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki

No. 12 Ana Ivanovic

No. 14 Maria Kirilenko

No. 22 Francesca Schiavone

The final major of the tennis season started on Monday at the 2012 U.S. Open. We’re previewing each section of the draw. Up next: The Radwanska Region.

No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska

No. 6 Angelique Kerber

No. 10 Sara Errani

No. 13 Dominika Cibulkova

No. 20 Roberta Vinci

Roger Federer looked as good as ever Monday, winning his opening-round match against American Donald Young in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. After falling short at Flushing Meadows the past three years, can the world’s top-ranked player finally capture his sixth U.S. Open title?

Perhaps, but for now, Federer is deferring to the reigning champ and current world No. 2, Novak Djokovic.

The 2012 U.S. Open tennis tournament continues in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., as many marquee names take to the court for their opening-round matches on the second day.

Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic, and Serena Williams all will take the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday.