In an all-American first-round matchup under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 9th-seeded James Blake had to slog through five dramatic sets against the promising 19-year-old Donald Young before finally prevailing, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Blake's serve held strong and his net game remained impressive, though the number of unforced errors from both of these hard-hitting players was high. Young was able to dictate play and move ahead at key intervals, but ultimately Blake was just a bit more consistent, and he moves on to face Steve Karcis in the second round.

In the evening session's first match, Jelena Jankovic (2) beat American Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets.

So much for our match of the day.

Richard Gasquet is withdrawing from the tournament due to a fever, giving untested prospect Donald Young a ticket to the third round.

Two things to say about this:

(1) It's a big break for Young, who now, unbelievably, has a shot at the fourth round. In his next match he'll either take on 60th seed Feliciano Lopez or 39th seed Igor Andreev -- not the stiffest competition. If he gets that far, he'll get Federer.

(2) What a blow for Gasquet. The Frenchman had momentum after a solid run at Wimbledon and a lot of pre-tournament buzz. Federer said on Saturday that he liked the 21-year-old Gasquet's game better than either Novak Djokovic's or Andy Murray's.

No surprises so far today. Martina Hingis and Lleyton Hewitt both won easily and Novak Djokovic is cruising.

A young American contender, Sam Querrey, lost easily in straight sets, so he won't join unheralded countrymen Donald Young and John Isner in the second round.

Pay attention to James Blake's match, which is playing out very, very tight early on.

You can track live scores here on the very good (and very fast) Open web site, which we have in our blogroll here to the right.

The first week of a major tennis tournament is usually judged by who loses.

But in a development that should be of some interest locally, yesterday was a big day for American tennis: John Isner and Donald Young, young hopefuls both playing in their first U.S. Open, managed fairly easy victories.

As for today’s matches to watch:

Novak Djokovic will take the court after being newly introduced to pre-Open celebrity status. It’ll be interesting to see how packed Louis Armstrong gets for his late afternoon match.

A day after the victories by Isner and Young, another young American, Sam Querrey, will play in the always-insane Grand Stand in the early afternoon.

Elsewhere, Nadia Petrova will play on Court 7 mid-afternoon and Croatian prospect Ivo Karlovic will take on doubles expert Arnaud Clement on Court 11 in what should be one of the best contests of the morning.

Each morning here at the Observer's U.S. Open blog we're going to tell you what to look out for in the day's action. Today's tip: arrive early!

The heavy-hitters -- Jelena Jankovic, Justine Henin, Roger Federer -- will steal the spotlight at Arthur Ashe today. But you know how these first-round matches go: some of them are over in 40 minutes. If you have a pass that lets you into Arthur Ashe, don't be late.  read more »