ALL IS not well in the world of Venus Williams right now. After a difficult build-up to the US Open in which she lost early in two warm-up events, the five-times Wimbledon champion looked far from convincing in her first-round win over the Russian world number 47, Vera Dushevina, needing the best part of two and three-quarter hours before claiming a 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 win.

It was a performance that will have concerned her and one that surely will not have been lost on the former world number one Kim Clijsters, a potential opponent in the fourth round.

More worryingly for the third seed was the strapping she sported on her left knee from three games into the match. It is the same injury that she struggled with at Wimbledon – which was reported to be patella tendinitis – but while she managed to cope with it there, here she was all over the place and her father, Richard Williams, admitted later that her knee was “sore”.

Williams does not often speak about her injuries but admitted she was struggling. “I never said what it was,” she said. “I never get into details about any injuries I’m going through. You could see I had some issues.

“I’m just going to do my best to get as close to 100 per cent as I can for my next match. I don’t really talk about my injuries historically, and I’m not going to start now. I won’t be complaining. I’m going to go out there with my racket, just like everyone else and try to bring my best tennis.”

The Williams-Dushevina match kept fans entertained on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court on Monday night, which had the knock-on effect that Andy Roddick and Bjorn Phau did not even begin their first-round encounter until 11.10pm local time.

Roddick, the champion here in 2003, is always a big favourite with the New York crowd and he sent them home happy with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over the German.

In the early action here yesterday Dinara Safina barely resembled a player rated as the best in women’s tennis as stumbled into the second round with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win over little-known Australian Olivia Rogowska.

The Russian was in danger of suffering the humiliation of becoming the first women’s top seed to perish in the first round as she littered the Arthur Ashe Stadium with a heap of unforced errors.

Trailing 3-0 in the deciding set, Safina’s appearance in New York looked set to be a fleeting one but she managed to save face by subduing the plucky challenge of the 167th-ranked Rogowska after two hours 35 minutes of action.

“I didn’t break any racket and I didn’t get a warning so that’s already a positive,” a hugely relieved Safina, whose emotions often boil over on court, told the crowd after her escape.

A bludgeoning forehand from Safina ended Rogowska’s debut appearance at Flushing Meadows and the 23-year-old Russian will be looking for a vast improvement when she takes on either Urszula Radwanska of Poland or Germany’s Kristina Barrois in the next round.

In the men’s event, the seventh-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, one of the few players who can boast a win over Roger Federer this summer, dropped just three games in a 6-0, 6-2, 6-1 win over Chase Buchanan of the US. - Guardian Service