US OPEN: Day 1

No really big surprises. Venus and Serena had nearly identical scores (6-3, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-3) but the matches were very different. Venus was very calm and was never really threatened or agitated (except about some line calls) while Serena was down 1-3 breakpoint on her serve but managed to muscle out the next 5 consecutive games. Kuznetsova was upset in the first round, but it wasn't really a surprise. Serena looked better than she did at Wimbledon but still seemed a bit out of it against the #261 player in the world. Her draw is much kinder than Venus' so I now think she will make it past the 3rd round, but lose to Venus.

African American phenom 16-year old Donald Young (with suspiciously bright blue eyes) had a set point in the first set but lost in straight sets after blowing a 4-2 lead in first set tie break. He has yet to win a set on the ATP Tour. 19-year old African American Scoville Jenkins who got blown off of Arthur Ashe Stadium by Roddick last year won his first Grand Slam match in a 5th set tiebreak. Shenay Perry took out #14 seed Alicia Molik 6-4, 6-4.

Sharapova looked very sharp, although Eleni Danilidou played well, she couldn't win the important points and became discouraged. The final score was 6-1, 6-1.