Djokovic begins bid for record 25th Grand Slam with straight-set victory

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, reacts after defeating Radu Albot, of Moldova, during a first-round match of the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York. (AP )

NEW YORK, Aug 27, (AP): Novak Djokovic began his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title and tied Roger Federer with his 89th match win at the U.S. Open by defeating qualifier Radu Albot of Moldova 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. The second-seeded Djokovic, again wearing a gray sleeve over his surgically repaired right knee, was competing for the first time since claiming an Olympic gold medal three weeks ago at the Paris Games, the last significant achievement that was missing from his resume.

Djokovic, a 37-year-old from Serbia, improved to 18-0 in first-round matches at Flushing Meadows and is now 89-13 overall at the hard-court tournament, which he's won four times, including a year ago. He's never lost earlier than the third round at the U.S. Open; Albot never has been past the third round in 30 appearances at majors. Djokovic never has lost a Grand Slam match to someone ranked as low as No. 138 Albot. And Albot is now 0-12 against opponents ranked in the top 10. Next up for Djokovic is a countryman, familiar opponent and friend, Laslo Djere, who advanced with a 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff.

The chant rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday at the U.S. Open before Coco Gauff's first service game of the first match of her first Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion: "Here we go, Coco! Here we go!” Coming to Flushing Meadows off a series of early exits at other events, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match's initial game at love by making four groundstroke errors.

What followed was a tough, tight game, featuring 14 points across eight minutes and three break chances for Gracheva. The important part, of course, was that Gauff saved all of those breakpoints, claimed that game, and suddenly was in complete control on the way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory that not only put the 20-year-old American in the second round but also told her - and everyone else - that her game is in better shape than it appeared lately.

Day 1 at the year's last Grand Slam tournament went about as well as possible for Gauff and another young American featured in Ashe, 13th-seeded Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a year ago who beat 2020 champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It was the last U.S. Open match for Thiem, who turns 31 next week and is retiring after this season.

Seeded women's winners included No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time Australian Open champion who was the runner-up to Gauff a year ago in New York; No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the women's gold medalist at the Paris Olympics earlier this month; No. 24 Donna Vekic, the silver medalist; No. 12 Daria Kasatkina; and No. 14 Madison Keys. No. 9 Maria Sakkari stopped playing after one set because of an injured right shoulder. The highest-seeded man out of the bracket during the day session was No. 15 Holger Rune, who was eliminated by Brandon Nakashima of the U.S. 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.