Hewitt cruises into second round

LLEYTON HEWITT breezed into the second round of the US Open with a straight-sets victory over American Amer Delic yesterday.

Hewitt, seeded 16, needed just 97 minutes to sweep past Delic in a 6-2 6-4 6-2 win, claiming an impressive 37 out of 39 points on his first serve.

Meanwhile Novak Djokovic’s impressive summer on hard courts continued in style. Third seed Djokovic, who swept to the ATP Masters Series title in Montreal earlier this month by beating Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in successive rounds, only had lucky loser Robin Haase of the Netherlands to deal with at Flushing Meadows.

And the 20-year-old Serb, a semi-finalist at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year, made the task look like a practice session, beating Haase 6-2 6-1 6-3.

In the women’s tournament, Svetlana Kuznetsova began her bid to regain the US Open title with a quick victory over Klara Zakopalova.

Russia’s Kuznetsova was the surprise champion in 2004 when she defeated compatriot Elena Dementieva but crashed out in the first round when she returned to defend the title in 2005.

Having made a run to the round of 16 last year, Kuznetsova took just 64 minutes to dispatch Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-3 in the first match at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland also progressed with a 6-2 6-1 demolition of Japan’s Akiko Morigami.

Meanwhile sixteenth seed Martina Hingis needed just 60 minutes to oust France’s Mathilde Johansson 6-0 6-3.

Tim Henman has declared himself fit for the final grand slam of his career.

Henman takes on Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the first round of the US Open today having recently announced he will retire from tennis after Great Britain’s Davis Cup clash with Croatia next month.

The former British number one is optimistic he will have no problems against Tursunov. “My back seems to have recovered and it feels pretty good at the moment, which is important as I’m going to have to serve well to stand a decent chance of winning.”