Winning night of Federer and Serena

Under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Federer defeated Simon Greul of Germany in a slightly more difficult way that was unexpected at 6-3, 7-5, 7-5.

Federer will play Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday in the third round. Hewitt beat Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-3, 6-6, 6-4. Federer is 15-7 against Hewitt and has won their last 13 encounters. Roger Federer has stretched his U.S. Open winning streak to 36 matches by reaching the third round.Federer is trying to become the first man since Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the American Grand Slam tournament 6 years in a row.Next up for Federer: a match against 2001 U.S. Open champion Lleyton Hewitt.





In another late match, No. 2 Serena Williams was pretty close to perfect in beating 51st-ranked Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour.Also yesterday, Venus Williams moved on, Rafael Nadal came back and Marat Safin said goodbye.

Her left knee heavily wrapped, the third-seeded Williams defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-4, 6-2, in a less taxing match than she had 2 nights earlier when she fell behind a set before rallying against Vera Dushevina.

"I'm still playing well and I feel I'll continue to play better as the rounds go on," she said. "I'm trying not to make this injury a factor at all."

Breaking with tradition, the Federer match was played first at Arthur Ashe Stadium ahead of the women’s match, in which Serena Williams routed Melinda Czink of Hungary, 6-1, 6-1 in 53 minutes.It was the first time the sexes had switched starting times since 1986, when a match featuring Jimmy Connors was played before a women’s match headlined by Gabriela Sabatini. The United States Tennis Association is expected to have at least one more card in which the men play first.

“Seems like it was a success so far,” Federer said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

But whether playing first, second, day or night, it mattered not to Greul, who was ranked 65th in the world entering the tournament and as low as 208th a year ago.After a listless first set, Greul played more aggressively, attacking Federer’s serve and forcing him to fight off two set points on his serve before Federer held and broke Greul in the 11th game. Federer hit three consecutive backhand slices and then changed the pace with a topspin backhand, following it up with a wicked forehand winner.

Federer won the match in 1 hour 58 minutes. As Greul walked off the court, he was cheered warmly by the 24,206 fans, a night session record.Greul said that because of the circumstances — playing against the world’s best player on center court at night — he could take more out of the loss than some of his victories.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “I’m really happy how it worked.”

The Hewitt-Chela match did not expose lingering rifts between the players. Chela once spit in the direction of Hewitt at the Australian Open. They amiably shook hands when it was over.