First day. First round. Flushing Meadows. It's the US Open and Melanie Oudin impresses her American fans against Olga Savchuk. After taking the first set 6-3, she goes into overdrive and wins the second in 18 minutes
French Open champion Francesca Schiavone is also in cruise-control and in just under an hour the Italian sixth seed makes the second round with a 6-1 6-0 victory over Japan's Ayumi Morita
The British flags are waving on court 17 with Elena Baltacha crushing Croatia's Petra Martic 6-2 6-2. The win comes two months after Britain's number one suffered a three-set loss to her at Wimbledon
It's also a red letter day for 12th seed Elena Dementieva, whose injury troubles appear behind her as she thrashes Olga Govortsova 6-1 6-2 to maintain her record of never having lost in round one of the US Open
The star attraction of the afternoon session is defending champion Kim Clijsters and, despite a second-set wobble, she powers through to beat Hungarys Greta Arn 6-0 7-5 and book her place in the second round
Things aren't so straightforward for Gael Monfils, however, and the French 17th seed needs five sets to make it past Robert Kendrick of the United States and set up a meeting with Igor Andreev
Similarly stretched is Robin Soderling, the fifth seed and two-time French Open runner-up taken the distance by qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer - ranked 214th in the world - before winning 7-5 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 5-7 6-4
The brollies are up - but don't go thinking there's rain in the air. These two spectators do all they can to avoid the scorching sunshine on a day of stifling temperatures in the Queens district of New York City
It might as well be raining on Dinara Safina, though. A year after she arrived at Flushing Meadows as top seed, the injury-hit Russia succumbs to a 6-3 6-4 defeat by 24th seed Daniela Hantuchova and the tears begin to flow
No such issues for ninth seed Andy Roddick. The 2003 champion wastes little time dismantling Stephane Robert on Arthur Ashe Stadium to book his place in round two with a 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory
Another Andy - world number four and British number one Andy Murray - joins Caroline Wozniacki on site as the pair collect the men's and women's 2010 US Open Series trophies
Fifth seed Stosur has struggled for form since her run to the French Open final, and the Australian is forced to come from behind to beat doubles specialist Elena Vesnina 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-1
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 champion, fights back against Paul-Henri Mathieu on the Grandstand Court only to lose in a fifth set
The first night session of the fortnight kicks off with a performance from singer Gloria Estefan
Martina Navratilova is among those honoured during the opening ceremony
Venus Williams is looking sharp as she defeats Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-1 in 74 minutes to reach the second round
Former Arsenal and current New York Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry and French basketball star Ronny Turiaf take on Roger Federer's opening match
Federer is in superb form against Argentina's Brian Dabul, thrilling the crowd with one spectacular through-the-legs shot in the third set
Federer needs just 93 minutes to see off Dabul for the loss of just seven games
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