NEW YORK CITY — Britain, buoyed by the Andy Murray feel-good factor, celebrated US Open first round wins for Laura Robson and qualifier Daniel Evans Monday as Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na cruised into the second round. As the first day of the final Grand Slam of the season got underway at Flushing Meadows, Robson, the first British woman to be seeded at a major for 26 years, won nine games in succession to beat Spanish veteran Lourdes Dominguez Lino, 7-5, 6-0. The 30th seed, who ended Kim Clijsters' career in New York 12 months ago on her way to the last 16, next faces either France's Caroline Garcia or Shelby Rogers of the US. She was over-shadowed, however, when world 179 Evans, making his debut after coming through qualifying, swept past Japanese 11th seed Kei Nishikori, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Nishikori, who made the third round, last year, committed 38 unforced errors. The 23-year-old Evans had never won a main draw match at the Grand Slams until Monday and his reward is a second round clash against either Australia's Bernard Tomic or Albert Ramos of Spain. Polish third seed Radwanska, who has never got beyond the last-16 in New York, eased past Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1, 6-2 and next faces another Spaniard, Maria Teresa Torro-Flor. “I think two-sets match for the first match is always good,” Radwanska said. “I prepared very good. I'm ready now to play here and hopefully I can play same good tennis.” Chinese fifth seed Li also reached the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus. Venus Williams also reached the second round by defeating Belgian 12th seed and Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-2. Spanish 18th seed Carla Suarez Navarro was the first player into the US Open second round. She defeated America's Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-0 in under an hour and next faces either Coco Vandeweghe of the US or Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic for a place in the third round. Meanwhile, 12 months after 2003 champion Andy Roddick quit the sport, another US veteran, James Blake, announced his retirement Monday. The 33-year-old, who reached as high as four in the world back in 2006 but now stands at 100, won 10 tour titles and made the US Open quarterfinals the same year. “This is my last tournament,” said Blake. “I have had 14 pretty darn good years on tour, loved every minute of it, and I definitely couldn't have asked for a better career.” Bartoli on retirement: Never say never From the two-handed groundstrokes on each side, to that out-of-nowhere victory at Wimbledon this year to her equally surprising retirement less than two months after that, Marion Bartoli has put her unique spin on a career that's always kept people guessing. So, maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise when she said this Sunday: “It's pretty hard to say I would never come back.” The 28-year-old Frenchwoman, who retired suddenly after a loss at Cincinnati on Aug. 14, left the door cracked open ever so slightly during a news conference in Manhattan. She's at the US Open, not as a player this time, but as a TV analyst. “I think it will have to come from me, my desire,” she said. “At the end of the day, you're the only one who knows everything you have to go through as a tennis player.” — Agencies
