US Open 2013: Day 1 - Fantastic Evans stuns Nishikori



Evans slicing his trademark backhand to Nishikori

US Open 2013: Day 2 - Fantastic Evans stuns Nishikori

From a British perspective the highlight of the opening day at the 2013 US Open Championships came very early on as qualifier Dan Evans produced the best result of his career in sweeping past 11th seed Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-4 6-2 on Court 13.

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The British No.3 from Birmingham is on a roll after reaching back-to-back ATP Challenger Finals in North America (and having match point in both) and then securing three excellent victories in qualifying for the main draw. 

The confidence from these exploits showed as he took the biggest scalp of his career in the form of the World No.12 and Japanese No.1.

Evans served superbly and attacked with his forehand at the right times - particularly off the increasingly vulnerable Nishikori serve - and used his single handed sliced backhand to excellent effect, especially when defending and when dropping it short and low.



Evans was delighted by his career best victory

The 23 year-old also volleyed beautifully including some stunning Henman-esque pickups at crucial moments.  He didn't panic when he trailed 2-4 in the opener and was broken in the first game of the second set.  



Overall a very mature and impressive performance from Evans who will now be close to top 150 - in his first Grand Slam second round he'll take on Bernard Tomic.  There will be a lot of slice to slice rallies in that one!

Evans' upset victory was the biggest shock on day one as the majority of the favourites made their way into round two.

Williams was close to dishing out an opening round double bagel

Defending champion Serena Williams laid down a marker as she began her campaign for a 5th US title with a crushing 6-0 6-1 dismisal of 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone under the lights.  The top seed is a strong favourite to take major title No.17 on this form - but we said that at Wimbledon......

Otherwise in the women's draw there were no sets dropped for Agnieszka Radwanska, Li Na, Angelique Kerber, Jelena Jankovic and Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki. Two-time winner Venus Williams rolled back to the years to take down 12th seed Kirsten Flipkens 6-1 6-2.

At either end of the age spectrum there was a 7-5 6-0 win for 19 year-old Laura Robson - the first British woman to be seeded at a major since Jo Durie at the '87 Australian - against Lourdes Dominguez Lino while 42 year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm went down 6-3 7-6(9-7) against Paula Ormaechea.

Red-hot Rafael Nadal started his quest to lift a second US Open crown with a comprehensive 6-4 6-2 6-2 defeat of Ryan Harrison.  His projected quarter final opponent was defeated by the weather as five-time champion Roger Federer's night clash with Grega Zemlja was pushed back onto the day two schedule by evening rain on the Arthur Ashe stadium.

The other two top seeds in the bottom half of the Men's draw - David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet - moved through to the last 64 without the loss of a set.

All in all an enjoyable first day's play in the Big Apple with Mr Daniel Evans stealing the limelight.

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