Nadal cruises through opening round

RAFAEL NADAL made sure he kept things moving along as he negotiated the first hurdle at the US Open without too much difficulty.

The second-seed methodically moved into the second round with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 triumph over Mark Philippoussis in his first match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The 20-year-old lefthander broke Philippoussis once in each set.

Nadal saved all four of the Australian wild card’s break chances.

The Nadal-Philippoussis match had been scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed as rain wreaked havoc at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Only nine of 64 scheduled matches began and none were completed, forcing the USTA to put 80 encounters on the docket yesterday.

After getting past the 1998 US Open runner-up, Nadal awaits Peruvian Luis Horna, who also expedited matters with a 7-5 6-4 6-3 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.

Nadal has an apparently easy quarter of the draw, with the next two highest seeds being fellow Spaniards No 6 Tommy Robredo and No 11 David Ferrer.

Women’s top seed Amelie Mauresmo followed on Ashe and completed a 6-1 7-5 triumph over German qualifier Kristina Barrois by winning five straight games.

After easily winning the first set Tuesday, Mauresmo was behind in the second, 5-2, when play was suspended at 3:45pm.

She rolled yesterday, however, breaking in the ninth game to get back on serve and again in the 11th before closing out the match.

Other early winners yesterday included No 10 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, No 12 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, No 26 Olivier Rochus of Belgium and 2000 champion Marat Safin of Russia in the men’s draw.

Among the women, 16th seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia & Montenegro and 23rd seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia both advanced.

Men’s top seed Roger Federer begins what he hopes will be a march to a third straight US Open crown against Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taipei.

Federer, facing Wang for the first time, aims to join John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl as the only men to win here three years in a row.

But he enters the tournament after his worst outing in two years, a second-round defeat to rising Brit Andy Murray at Cincinnati.

Murray, the 17th seed, takes on American qualifier Robby Kendrick in a match postponed from Tuesday.

Fifth-seeded American James Blake will play Argentine Juan Monaco in another match washed out Tuesday.

Third-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova takes on Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands in the first night match — 24 hours later than scheduled.

The women will be followed by a second-round men’s match between No 9 Andy Roddick and Kristian Pless of Denmark.