NEW YORK — Serena Williams began her final push towards a calendar year Grand Slam in devastating fashion on Monday by pounding Vitalia Diatchenko 6-0, 2-0 before the overwhelmed Russian waved the white flag and retired.
Following a Broadway style opening ceremony complete with orchestra and choir, Williams stepped onto center court under a spotlight to loud applause from the New York crowd just seven matches from her goal.
The six-time U.S. Open champ exited Arthur Ashe Stadium just 30 minutes later to more applause and with her target reduced to six more wins to join the exclusive club of calendar Grand Slam winners Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and Steffi Graf.
“It’s great to be here in Arthur Ashe Stadium, to be American, just to be on this journey in my life,” Williams, who already has the Wimbledon and Australian and French Open titles in the bag, told reporters.
“It’s kind of awesome that this is the last grand slam of the year, because if it were in a different country I think I would still love it but it’s not the same as being an American playing in New York, playing for that ultimate goal.”
Standing across from the world number one for the first time, Diatchenko appeared frozen in fear as Williams won 32 points to just five by the Russian.
In just seven minutes, the 21-time grand slam singles champion and defending U.S. Open title holder was 3-0 up against her 86th ranked opponent.
A shaken Diatchenko called for the trainer to look at her left foot after going 5-0 down in the first set, and after Williams wrapped it up the Russian left the court for more treatment.
With Williams taking a 2-0 lead in the second, Diatchenko signalled she had suffered enough and after a brief chat with the chair umpire walked over to shake her opponent’s hand.
“It was definitely different and bizarre but at the same time I was still focused,” said Williams, who has only lost two matches this season. “I kept thinking, just stay focused; don’t lose it. You never know what can happen.”
The victory stretched Williams’ grand slam winning streak to 29 matches. She is now unbeaten at the U.S. Open in 22 matches going back to a loss to Sam Stosur in 2011.
In men’s action, top-seeded world number one Novak Djokovic raced into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Joao Souza of Brazil to close Monday’s first day session at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Djokovic had to wait in the wings for Venus Williams to complete a two-hour, 40-minute win at Ashe, but once the Serb hit the court he played as if he had a taxi meter running outside the National Tennis Center.
Ones were wild for Djokovic, who won each set 6-1 in a one-hour 11-minute romp to victory for the reigning Australian and Wimbledon champion.
“There’s something I love about number one, for sure,” Djokovic told the crowd in an oncourt interview.
Djokovic, who said he is playing with newfound serenity since becoming a father last October, was pleased to have produced such an emphatic opening win.
“I lost three games the entire match against a player I never played against before,” he said. “It can always be tricky because you’re approaching the match without really knowing how he’s going to react.
“I couldn’t ask for a better opening of this year’s U.S. Open. Hopefully I can continue in that rhythm.”
Despite going 56-5 this year, Djokovic said a victory like Monday’s can give the nine-times grand slam singles winner a boost.
“With a dominant win like the one today, it adds to your confidence, your self-belief,” he said. “It’s also making a statement for everybody that is out there watching. We are all seeing how each other progresses.
“It’s important you’re out on the court with the right intensity and you’re sending a good message, and I’ve done so.”
Djokovic will next meet either Canadian Vasek Pospisil or Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria.
In other matches, Kei Nishikori was back in the U.S. Open spotlight but for all the wrong reasons as last year’s runner-up headlined a day of first-round upsets.
Fourth seed Nishikori, who last year became the first Asian man to reach a grand slam final, found defeat hard to swallow after squandering two match points in the 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 loss to Frenchman Benoit Paire.
The 25-year-old Japanese had plenty of company at the exit following a string of opening-day upsets that included Serbian seventh seed and former world number one Ana Ivanovic, eighth seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova and 10th-seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
A hot, muggy day that attracted a record first session crowd of over 37,000 got off to an ominous start when 50th-ranked Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova dispatched Ivanovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
Anna Tatishvili gave the home fans a reason to get excited as the 121st-ranked American qualifier destroyed Pliskova 6-2, 6-1 while Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin kept the upsets trending with 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jelena Jankovic, the 21st seed and 2008 U.S. Open runner-up.
It was Nishikori, however, who generated the opening day buzz as his hopes of making another magical U.S. Open run came to a quick end.
Marin Cilic, who beat Nishikori in last year’s final, had no opening day hiccups as the ninth-seeded Croat began defense of his title with a 6-3, 7-6(3), 7-6(3) win over Argentine qualifier Guido Pella.
Recovering from a wobbly first set Nishikori had looked ready to survive the opening test taking a 6-4 lead in the fourth set tiebreak.
But the 41st-ranked Paire would fight off two match points then take the tiebreak and carry the momentum into the fifth set where he recorded the decisive break to go up 3-2 before finishing off Nishikori with a booming ace.
“It’s always very sad to lose in the first round, but I think he was playing good tennis,” said Nishikori. “I don’t think I played badly. Didn’t play great, but still, it’s never easy first match.”