The four time champion Pete Sampras has won through to the second round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadow, New York. Women's defending champion Venus Williams has also progressed.
Sampras has to deflect so much talk about retirement these days, and by his incredibly high standards, he's having a poor year. He's without a tournament victory since the 2000 Wimbledon, and lost to Tommy Haas in a final just last week. At the U.S. Open, he's been stretching by a clever French player Julien Boutter, but in typical Sampras fashion he had enough skill to come through 6-4 7-6 7-6.
"Good tennis. I mean I was pretty happy the way I started off here.," Sampras said. "Played a very dangerous player early on. It was a good one to get through because I knew at the level he was playing, it could have been an upset."
Jan Michael Gambill, Greg Rusedski and Thomas Johansson have also won. And there was never going to be an upset for Venus Williams. The fourth seed was too strong for Slovakian qualifier Lenka Dlhopolcova.