Shout-out a key point for Ivanovic

NEW YORK - From somewhere high up in the stands - near the $52 seats as opposed to the $1,000-plus courtside boxes - a lonely voice called out.

"You're No. 1 for a reason," the encourager exhorted, interrupting the pre-serve silence that had fallen over Arthur Ashe Stadium. Ana Ivanovic couldn't help but hear.

From that moment, with Ivanovic serving at 5-4, 15-40 in the final set against a stubborn 22-year-old Russian named Vera Dushevina, who never has won a WTA Tour singles title and is ranked 57th in the world, the 20-year-old Serb won five of the next six points to take the first-round match, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. It was the closest opening-rounder involving a top-seeded woman at the US Open since Steffi Graf rallied for a 6-7 (1-7), 6-1, 6-4 win over South-African Amanda Coetzer in 1995.

Ivanovic, who won the French Open in June and was runner-up at the Australian Open in January, retook the No. 1 ranking last week from her countrywoman, Jelena Jankovic, without having played since a thumb injury sidelined her before the Olympics. Should she and Jankovic, the second seed here, reach the final of the Open, the winner will be crowned No. 1. In fact, no fewer than six women - Ivanovic, Jankovic, Serena Williams, and three Russians, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dinara Safina, and Elena Dementieva - began the Open having the chance to become No. 1, though by a quirk of the computer, last year's runner-up, Kuznetsova, is no longer in contention.

Ivanovic denied frustration at her inability to push Dushevina aside in less than 2 hours 2 minutes, during which time she hit 33 winners but committed 40 unforced errors, including a netted forehand on her first match point and a double fault on her second. She won the match on her third chance, when Dushevina plunked a backhand into the net.

"I'm very, very happy because just to be here and to be able to compete, for me, it's already a great achievement," said Ivanovic, who flew from Beijing to Australia to New York over the last three weeks in search of a cure and treatment for cysts in her hand that were causing inflammation in her thumb. "I'm probably one of the few players who hasn't played so much lately, so I can try to use that in my benefit."

While Ivanovic struggled, Serena Williams needed just 56 minutes to dispose of Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-1, 6-4, while Bondarenko's older sister, Alona, beat American Jamea Jackson, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Meanwhile, Williams's sister, Venus, won the first three games against Australian Samantha Stosur in just eight minutes but then fell behind, 3-1, in the second before reeling off five straight games for a less-than-routine 6-2, 6-3, 77-minute win. And, just to make things even more confusing, Marat Safin's kid sister, Dinara, also won, defeating the youngest and lowest-ranked player in the draw, 17-year-old, 758th-ranked qualifier, Kristie Ahn from Saddle River, N.J., 6-3, 6-4.

Roger Federer, shooting for his fifth straight US Open title but the second seed here after losing his No. 1 world ranking, beat Maximo Gonzalez, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3, in the final stadium match of the night. Gonzalez acquitted himself well until Federer won 10 straight games spanning all three sets.

Sam Querry was just 18 when he first competed in the main draw at the US Open, but yesterday the San Francisco native notched his greatest victory here by upsetting 22d-seeded Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the second round of a major for only the third time in his career. Berdych had reached the round of 16 here three of the last four years and was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon last year. He is best known for having upset then-No. 1 Federer at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

But against the 6-foot-6-inch Querry, who served 11 aces, hit 36 winners, and lost his serve only once, Berdych was rendered limp, joining another vanquished seed, No. 12 Frenchman Richard Gasquet, on the sideline. Gasquet fell to German veteran Tommy Haas, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, in 3 hours 38 minutes.

Querry was accompanied into the second round by another American, 26-year-old Mardy Fish, who outlasted Australian qualifier Robert Smeets, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-4. It is the sixth time in nine years Fish has reached the second round at the Open, but he never has advanced beyond.

"I'd say this is one of the three best matches of my life," said Querry, who, for the first time in his career, won the coin toss and opted to receive rather than serve, promptly breaking Berdych, winning his own serve and breaking again for a quick 3-0 lead. "I just played really well, really smart. Tennis is a lot about momentum. I just kept it going."

Querry is acutely aware of the urgency to produce another great American champion. Though he lost in the first round of the Olympics, he won his first ATP title in Las Vegas earlier this year.

"I can feel it a little bit," Querry said of the pressure to recreate the era of Sampras/Agassi/Courier/Chang. "It's tough because from 1970 to 2005, America pretty much had a No. 1-ranked player, someone who was always in the running to win a Slam. We haven't had that the last couple of years."