Federer, Venus roll on, Kvitova out in US Open

Five-time champion Roger Federer and Venus Williams advanced into second round at the U.S. Open, while newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova suffered first round exit on Monday. Roger Federer, seeded third, won his opening match on Monday night, defeating Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. It was the first Grand Slam match for the Swiss since he turned 30 earlier this month. Playing her first match in two months, 31-year-old Williams, two-time championp in 2000 and 2001, powered through her Russian opponent Vera Dolonts, whose arrival at the season's final Grand Slam tournament was delayed until a few hours before the first-round match by visa and weather problems, to a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova crashed out of the U.S. Open first round, bowing to Romania's Alexandra Dulgheru, ranked 48th on the WTA Tour, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Federer, who won five straight U.S. Open titles from 2004-08 and holds the men's record with 16 Grand Slam singles championships, has won at least one major event every year since 2003, though none so far in 2011. Dolonts said in a televised pre-match interview that she only received a visa three days ago and then had a flight into New York canceled by Hurricane Irene. Williams, ranked 36th on the WTA Tour, is unseeded at the tournament for the first time since 1997 and hadn't played since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon. She was sidelined for several weeks by illness. "I just want to play tennis," Williams said in a news conference. "It doesn't matter what the tournament is. Obviously the Open is huge, but I just want to play." Former champion Maria Sharapova needed three sets to advance to the second round. Mardy Fish, No. 8 and the top-seeded American player, won in straight sets over Germany's Tobias Kamke in 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. Sharapova, the No. 3 seed who won in 2006, beat Heather Watson, a 19-year-old Briton, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a 2-hour, 34-minute match. "The goal sometimes on days like this is just to get through it," Sharapova, who is 12-0 in three-set matches this year, said. "I hung in there. She played great and all I can do is improve for the next one."