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22 maltatoday, Wednesday, 2 september 2015 Sport Tennis - Us Open nadal flashes old form in win over Coric Rafa Nadal showed flashes of his top form under the lights at arthur ashe Stadium to beat young Croat Borna Coric 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 and close Day One at the U.S. Open tennis championships on Monday. The first two sets brought a vin- tage performance on a sultry night from Nadal, who has dropped to world number eight in what has been a lackluster season for the 29- year-old Spaniard. Given his last chance to keep alive a 10-year streak of winning at least one grand slam title, 14-times major winner Nadal schooled the 18-year-old Coric over the first two sets. But Coric responded with his best tennis and broke the Spaniard in the 10th game of the third set to send the match to a hard-fought fourth set. The Spaniard finally prevailed thanks to a service break on a fore- hand service return winner in the seventh game. "It's a very happy moment for me," said Nadal, returning to flushing Meadows for the first time since his 2013 U.S. Open triumph after missing last year with a wrist in- jury. "Last year was very hard not hav- ing chance to being back in one of my favorite tournaments." Nadal avenged a 6-2 7-6 loss to Coric last year at Basel in his only previous encounter with the up- and-coming Coric, who at number 33 is the youngest player in the world's top-50. "I think I played great. The first two sets I played a very high level of tennis," said Nadal, who served brilliantly over the first two sets and in the fourth. "Then I get a little bit tired. I was sweating a lot. "He is a great player and has an amazing future." Coric, who reached the semi- finals this year in Dubai and Nice, leads all teenagers with 22 wins this season on the aTP Tour, nine more than alexander Zverev of Germany. "It was the first time in my life on such a big court," said Coric, who two years ago won the U.S. Open junior title. "I played a solid match, so very good." Nadal next meets Diego Schwartzman of argentina, a 6-3 6-2 6-2 winner over Swedish quali- fier Elias Ymer. Rafa Nadal Serena strolls through DEfENDING champion Serena Williams strolled into the second round of the US Open after Vitalia Diatchenko withdrew from their first-round match. The world No 1 had built up a commanding 6-0 2-0 lead when the Russian decided to pull out due to an ankle injury in New York. Williams dominated her strug- gling opponent, winning 32 of the 37 points they played during her brief 27-minute workout, and will next face Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands. Troubled by the injury, Diatch- enko was visited by a trainer dur- ing the first set and got her left foot and ankle taped. But she limped out of the match after being broken again in the second set, handing victory to Williams, who is trying to become the first player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a sea- son since Steffi Graf in 1988. She was joined in the next stage by compatriot CoCo Vandeweghe, the winner of an all-american clash with Sloane Stephens. The world No 45, a quarter- finalist at Wimbledon this year, completed a 6-4 6-3 victory over Stephens. Vandeweghe set up a clash with yet another US player Bethanie Mattek-Sands, with the winner likely to face Williams in the third round. Serena Williams Djokovic, Cilic ease through WORLD number one Novak Djokovic barely broke sweat as he dispatched Brazil's Joao Souza for the loss of just three games in the first round of the US Open. Djokovic is gunning for his third grand slam title of the year after triumphs at the australian Open and Wimbledon, and the Serb put on a dominant opening display in New York to win 6-1 6-1 6-1. The victory took just one hour and 11 minutes to complete, with Djokovic now up against aus- trian andreas Haider-Maurer in round two. Djokovic arrived in flushing Meadows with some question marks hanging over his form following defeats in consecu- tive weeks to andy Murray in Montreal and Roger federer in Cincinnati. The top seed, however, often saves his best for the heat of a grand slam and he never had to leave first gear against Souza, who is ranked 91st in the world and looked out of his depth from the start. Seven breaks of serve and 24 winners ensured Djokovic moved safely into the second round on a day which also saw his 2014 con- queror Kei Nishikori crash out. Nishikori beat Djokovic in the semi-finals 12 months ago and the pair had been due to meet again in the last four, but the Jap- anese fell at the first hurdle in a five-set defeat to france's Benoit Paire. "I couldn't ask for a better open- ing of this year's US Open," said Djokovic. "a dominant win like the one today, it adds to your confidence, your self-belief. But it's also mak- ing a statement for everybody that is out there watching. "We are all watching each oth- er's matches. It's important you're out on the court with the right in- tensity and you're sending a good message, and I've done so." Defending champion Marin Cilic will now look to take advan- tage of Nishikori's absence in that section of the draw. He has struggled to beat the world's best since winning in New York 12 months ago. However, his title defence got off to a strong start on Monday when he posted a 6-3 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (7/3) win over argentina's Guido Pella. David ferrer is also in the sec- ond quarter and he recovered from losing the first set to defeat Radu albot in what was his first match since before Wimbledon. ferrer has been suffering with an elbow injury but once he had shaken off the rust and levelled the contest, the Spaniard pulled away to win 4-6 7-5 6-1 6-0. Novak Djokovic