Former champions Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt made winning starts in their campaign for the U.S. Open 2015 title on Day 2 in New York at the Flushing Meadows. They were joined by the French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych and the top American John Isner as they made safe passage into the second round of the final grand slam of the year.

Five time champion Roger Federer(2004 to 2008) made short work of the Argentine Leonardo Mayer, the highest ranked player in the draw to be unseeded, as he ran away with a 6-1,6-2,6-2 win in the afternoon session on Day 2. Andy Murray, the 2012 champion played the first match of the evening session and was made to earn his four set win over the controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios winning 7-5,6-3,4-6,6-1.

The 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt playing in his final U.S. Open reached the second round as his opponent Aleksandr Nedovyesov retired with the score at 6-0,7-6(2),1-0 in Hewitt’s favour. Richard Gasquet who reached the semi-final at Wimbledon this year also progressed as another Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis retired in the fifth set trailing 0-2 after the pair had split the first four sets.

There was good news for the home fans as Donald Young of the U.S.A. came from two sets down to upset the 11th seeded Frenchman Giles Simon 2-6,4-6,6-4,6-4,6-4. The top American John Isner, seeded 13th, beat the Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-2,6-3,6-4. The other seeded players to win were Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Ivo Karlovic, Victor Troicki, Bernard Tomic, Jack Sock, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Thomaz Bellucci and Guillermo Garcia Lopez. Two more Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek also won.

Here is a list of matches to be played on Day 3 in the men’s section with my pick mentioned first :-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Andreas Haider-Maurer
David Ferrer(7) v. Fillip Krajonovic
Rafael Nadal (8) v. Diego Schwartzman
Marin Cilic (9) v. Evgeny Donskoy
Milos Raonic (10) v. Fernando Verdasco
David Goffin (14) v. Ricardas Berankis
Grigor Dmitrov (17) v. Mikhail Kukushkin
Feliciano Lopez (18) v. Mardy Fish
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (19) v. Marcel Granollers
Roberto Bautista Agut (23) v. Pablo Carreno Busta
Andreas Seppi (25) v. Teymuraz Gabashvili
Sam Groth v. Tommy Robredo (26)
Jeremy Chardy (27) v. Martin Klizan
Fabio Fognini (32) v. Pablo Cuevas
Sergiy Stakhovsky v. Illya Marchenko
Benoit Paire v. Marcel Ilhan

The top ladies in action Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber and the two former world number ones Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka easily advanced without dropping a set. However the sixth seeded Lucie Safarova, finalist at the French Open was sent packing by the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 4-6,1-6.

Also winning were the Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza, Andrea Petkovic, Sabine Lisicki, the 2011 champion Samantha Stosur and the veteran Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta. The 27th seeded Alize Cornet of France was upset by Japan’s Kurumi Nara in three sets, while the Swiss Timea Bacsinszky lost to Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova 5-7,0-6. The Romanian Irina Camelia Begu, the 28th seed also fell to Olga Govorstova of Belarus.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]