An honorable start to Open

NEW YORK -- Roger Federer arched his eyebrow, glanced down at the table, then apologized for not knowing anything about Althea Gibson.

"It's before my time," Federer muttered, shortly after the top seed had dispatched 21-year-old African-American qualifier Scoville Jenkins, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, on Arthur Ashe Stadium to begin defense of his US Open title. "Isn't much I can really say about it, I'm sorry."

Even Jenkins didn't realize the significance of his playing on a stadium named for an African-American on a day in which Gibson, the first African-American woman to win the US Championships 50 years ago, was being honored in a star-studded ceremony.

Twenty other prominent African-American women -- including singer Aretha Franklin, former US Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and actress Phylicia Rashad -- were also honored. Among them was 29-year-old Traci Green, a former top college player at the University of Florida who was recently named women's tennis coach at Harvard, the first African-American female to lead a Harvard team.

The occasion, however, was not lost on another young African-American, 18-year-old Donald Young, a former No. 1-ranked junior in the world who won his first-ever match at the US Open, a 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Australian Chris Guccione. It was just the second time in 11 tries that Young, who won the Wimbledon junior title last month, had won a match at the ATP Tour level.

"Most definitely I'm pleased," said Young, when asked how he felt about winning on the same day that Gibson was being feted. "I actually did a biography about her when I was in sixth grade. I can't remember it all now, but at the time I was really into it."

Young was not the only American neophyte to celebrate a first US Open win. John Isner, a 6-foot-10-inch 22-year-old with a baby face that belies his stature, used 34 aces to help him upset No. 26 seed Jarkko Nieminen from Finland, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Isner, who helped the University of Georgia to the NCAA team championship as a senior in May, also reached the final of the NCAA singles.

In just his second ATP Tour event in Washington this summer, the Greensboro, N.C., native, marched all the way to the final, winning five straight matches in a third-set tiebreaker, before finally falling to Andy Roddick. Isner next meets South African Rik De Voest, with a possible third-round matchup against Federer.

"This is the best serve I have ever seen on the court," said Nieminen, who was unable to capitalize on seven break points. "It's not because it's hard. It's the bounce because he's so tall. It's bouncing very high after that. His second serve is actually even better.

"If he serves like this, he doesn't have to do too much to get a few breaks in the match because obviously other players have pressure to hold serve."

No. 21 Juan Carlos Ferrero, the runner-up here in 2003, was upset by fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. And Marcos Baghdatis, seeded No. 18, lost to 30-year-old Belarussian Max Mirnyi.

Form held for the women as top-seeded Justine Henin needed barely an hour to knock out German qualifier Julia Goerges, 6-0, 6-3. Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic also moved on, as did fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic and 10th-seeded Marion Bartoli.

The revelation of the day came from another young American, 19-year-old wild card Jesse Levine, who lost to fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, after living the dream that every tennis player worldwide possesses.

It all came to pass when Levine, who had just ended his freshman year at the University of Florida with a 24-1 record, received a phone call from an IMG agent representing Federer. The agent asked Levine to fly to Dubai in July for 10 days to practice with Federer. After realizing the call wasn't a joke, Levine jetted off to the Middle East to undertake grueling workouts and lots of laughs with the man many think will one day be named the greatest player in the history of the game.

The moment of the day clearly belonged to the Williams sisters, who were chosen to play back-to-back night matches following the Gibson tribute.

Venus Williams didn't disappoint against Hungarian qualifier Kira Nagy, hitting a 129-miles-per-hour serve that tied her personal record recorded at Wimbledon this year. That mark is 1 m.p.h. shy of the record set by Brenda Schultz-McCarthy in Cincinnati last year.

"That [prematch] ceremony was so amazing," Williams said after completing a 6-2, 6-1 win in 54 minutes. "I was thinking as I took the court that a Williams can't lose tonight. That's not part of the plan."

All went as planned as Serena Williams followed with a slightly tougher straight-set win, bashing a 126-m.p.h. serve in her 6-3, 7-5 victory over Angelique Kerber.