US OPEN 2011: Li Na Upset, Serena, Nole, Rafa Through

Defending champion Rafael Nadal looked anything but dominant in his first round match against Andrey Golubev, falling behind 2-5 in the second and third sets but saving an astonishing seven set points to prevail 6-3 7-6(1) 7-5.

Following yesterday's surprising exit of Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 2011 French Open champion Li Na also lost in the first round, leaving no reigning grand slam champion left in the tournament after its second day. Li lost to Simona Halep in straight sets, 6-3 7-5. Reigning Australian Open champ (and defending US Open champ) Kim Clijsters is not playing in New York due to an injury. The losses by Li and Kvitova are disappointing follow-ups to their breakthroughs into the upper echelons of tennis earlier this year.

That basically leaves Serena Williams, despite being seeded #28, as the player most people want to talk about as the most likely player to win the tournament. She looked fabulous in her 6-1 6-1 beatdown of Bojana Jovanovski, a dangerous, hard-hitting youngster from Serbia.

Also, #1 seed Novak Djokovic won his 58th match of the year (against only 2 losses) when he was up 6-1 5-0 and his opponent retired.

#6 seed Robin Soderling suddenly withdrew from the tournament, citing an illness on Wednesday. Soderling was in #4 seed Andy Murray's quarter of the draw.