Li keeps the torch burning in Open

NEW YORK - The crowd bursts were short and to the point. Noisy and boisterous and over in a flash. But still, Li Na felt the support of every one of her fellow Chinese as she upset first Svetlana Kuznetsova and then Venus Williams en route to the tennis semifinals in the Beijing Olympics.

And even though Li lost to eventual silver medalist Dinara Safina and then finished just outside the medal count by falling to another Russian, Vera Zvonareva, the 26-year-old deemed her Olympic experience an unqualified success.

"In Olympics, every friend was coming to Beijing so I can talk to them, [have] dinner with them," she said. "It's more exciting to play in my country. I feel like my whole friends, my team stay behind me and push me a lot. Yes, this is good for me. But the Olympics is over. Now I need to focus for US Open."

Yesterday, Li learned what it is like to really focus and play without the crowd in her corner. After dropping the first set, she roared back to knock out the 24th seed, Israeli Shahar Peer, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1. Peer, a fan favorite in New York, was a quarterfinalist last year.

Li, who learned her English as a 15-year-old by spending 10 months as an exchange player at John Newcombe's tennis academy in New Braunfels, Texas, believes that China has much to learn from the United States, but mostly in terms of freedom of expression. Her idol in this regard? Andre Agassi.

"In China, if men have long hair, they think always like a bad guy," said Li. "And I saw he had an earring. In China, that's like not possible for the men. I was so young and I watch on television when he played. I was feeling he was playing the court like a butterfly, so free.

"So just watching TV, I feel like, OK, I want to do that."

There were few other upsets on an overcast, muggy opening day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, a day on which the 40th anniversary of tennis's Open Era (as in prize money) was celebrated with a star-studded celebration that included past US Open champions Billie Jean King, Rod Laver, Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, and Maria Sharapova, who withdrew from this year's tournament with a shoulder injury.

Olympic gold medalist and newly-minted world No. 1 Rafael Nadal seemed a sure bet to straight-set his way into the second round until German qualifier Bjorn Phau decided to entertain the crowd a little longer. Tumbling to the court after lunging for volleys and leaping through the air in an effort to stave off the inevitable, Phau broke the Spaniard when he was serving for the match (on a double fault no less) and then saved a break point on his own serve to lead the third set, 6-5.

But Nadal, with much to prove as the holder of the French, Wimbledon, and Olympic crowns, held serve and then muscled his way through the tiebreaker to notch a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) win in just a minute shy of three hours. In the end, both Nadal and the 136th-ranked Phau had 37 winners in the match but Nadal was able to convert on only 2 of 13 break opportunities.

"I think I help a little bit him to play to this level," said Nadal, who admitted to both mental and physical fatigue from his travel and on-court success over the last three months. "I didn't play with normal intensity. Probably the toughest thing is mentally, no? Because for the last month I was very concentrated all the days. But I don't want to say another time I'm tired. I am a little bit tired, yes, but it is US Open, so I have to try my best here."Russian Elena Dementieva, the women's gold medalist in Beijing, agreed with Nadal that it has been difficult to shift gears in little more than a week and turn her attention to the final major of the season. But the fifth seed eased her way past the tallest woman on the WTA Tour, 6-foot-3-inch Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 6-4, 7-5, rebounding from 5-3 down in the second set.

That's more than can be said for the 10th seed, fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze, who was upset by another Russian, 56th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Yet another Russian, third-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, the champion here in 2004 and runner-up to Justine Henin last year, also won, as did 1998 winner Lindsay Davenport.

The 32-year-old Davenport, competing here for the first time since giving birth to her son Jagger in June 2007, showed no ill effects of the knee that has troubled her much of this year and forced her to pull out of both Wimbledon and the singles competition at the Olympics. She won easily over Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-4, 6-2.

But the day was not so kind to young Americans, as Vania King, Asia Muhammad, Alexa Glatch, Ahsha Rolle, John Isner, Ryan Sweeting, and Brendan Evans all fell by the wayside. By evening's end - after a record crowd of 59,124 had filed through the gate - another had fallen, as 16-year-old CoCo Vandeweghe lost to top-seeded Ana Ivanovic, 6-3, 6-1 and 19-year-old Donald Young fell to ninth-seeded James Blake, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. The Blake-Young match was the first at the Open between two African-American men since Chip Hooper beat Marcel Freeman in 1982.

As for Li, her great hope is to perform as well in front of the Americans as she did in front of the Chinese. After that, she has one more goal, and it has to do with a very American pastime: shopping in New York City.

"I like the street number five," she said, referring to fashionable Fifth Avenue. "I was talking to my husband. I say, 'OK, after the match we have to go there.' He say, 'No, save the money for me. I stay in the house.' So, after the match I will go there. I mean, I didn't care about him, so I go myself. Taking credit card, that's it."