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Bud Remembers: August 31, 1979

Bud Collins looks back at the 1979 U.S. OpenTags: Tennis

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Bud Remembers: August 31, 1979

NEW YORK -- Venus Williams was bothered by a bad knee and distracted by more than a half-dozen foot-faults. What never fazed her: a big deficit.

Quite close to losing in the U.S. Open's first round for the first time, Williams came all the way back from a set and a break down to beat 47th-ranked Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3 on Monday night.

"I had a challenge on my hands today. But I wanted to win," said the No. 3-seeded Williams, who made 54 unforced errors. "Each good shot, and each not-so-good shot, I put behind me and looked forward to the next one."

Williams, twice the champion at Flushing Meadows, had her left knee bandaged by a trainer after the third game. The American also had plenty of trouble serving: She piled up 10 double-faults and was called for seven foot-faults.

Afterward, Williams wouldn't discuss her knee problem in any detail.

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Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesKim Clijsters won her first match at the U.S. Open since winning the championship in 2005.

"You could see I had some issues," she said. "I don't really talk about my injuries, historically, and I'm not going to start now."

Asked what it's going to take for her knee to be better for the second round, Williams said: "A lot of prayer. It's going to be a lot of prayer. Everything I can throw at it. But, you know, I'm tough."

She sure proved that on this night.

Dushevina broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set and was three points from winning at 5-4.

"Next few points," Dushevina said, "she played great."

That is true: Williams, who has never lost in the U.S. Open's first round, won the next seven games.

Still, there was a bit of shakiness left. Up 4-0 in the third set, Williams dropped three games in a row before righting herself once again.

One measure of how big an upset this would have been: Williams owns seven Grand Slam titles; Dushevina only once has been as far as the fourth round at a major tournament. And then there's this: Williams entered Monday 43-3 in first-round matches at tennis' top four tournaments, including 10-0 at the U.S. Open.

Even though Williams improved those marks in the end, the 2-hour, 43-minute match did serve as the most intriguing encounter of a Day 1 that included victories for defending champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams, Venus' younger sister.

Kim Clijsters, who recently came out of retirement, won her first match at the U.S. Open since claiming her lone Grand Slam title in New York in 2005.

Venus won the tournament in 2000 and 2001, and while she hasn't been back to the final since losing to her sister in 2002, her earliest departure from New York came in the fourth round in 2004.

She looked headed for the exit at several moments Monday, particularly after Dushevina took the last four points of the first set after trailing 5-3 in the tiebreak. Williams led by that score when she pounded an apparent service winner, one that would have given her a 6-3 lead and three set points.

But a line judge called Williams for a foot fault, her fourth. She seemed to lose her focus, turning to the official to ask, "Which foot?" When Williams went back to the baseline for the second serve, she netted it for a double-fault.

"It threw me off," Williams said. "After that, I just got a little tentative."

In the second set, Williams fell behind 3-1 and then trailed 5-4. But she broke Dushevina there with a backhand winner and began to hit her spots more.

Williams played most of her matches en route to the final at Wimbledon this year with a bulky tape job on her left knee. But she began Monday's match without any such help. Three games in, she called for the trainer.

"I had some issues, and I needed some support," she said, earning a roar from the fans. "I'm not one to complain. Everyone has injuries they're dealing with. I did my best tonight, despite everything I was going through."

About 12 hours earlier, in that same Arthur Ashe Stadium, spectators dotting the mostly empty stands called out to Clijsters as she stepped on the court that means so much to her.

"Come on, Kim!" yelled one fan. And then another. And yet another. "Hey, Kim!" someone else shouted.

Monday morning's setting was a familiar one for Clijsters, whose lone Grand Slam championship came at Flushing Meadows on Sept. 10, 2005. That was the last time she played at the U.S. Open, and while the site was the same, the circumstances and the stakes were different.

Clijsters' 6-1, 6-1 victory over 79th-ranked Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine came in the first round, the 26-year-old Belgian's first Grand Slam match since January 2007. In the intervening two-plus years, Clijsters retired, got married and, in May 2008, gave birth to a daughter. Once No. 1, she came to the U.S. Open unranked and needed a wild-card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association.

"Little more nervous than usual. It's a very special court to me, but I really enjoyed it," Clijsters said. "I felt really good out there."

It has been a good return thus far, one that has included four wins over top-20 opponents in two tournaments in August. Granted, this was only the first round of the U.S. Open, but her 58-minute win over Kutuzova included very few signs of rust.

"Now it's a matter of trying to keep this going," Clijsters said.

She won the first seven and last 11 points of the match and grinded through her few hiccups, including three double-faults in the third game of the opening set, which extended to seven deuces before she pulled it out.

The win guaranteed she'll be ranked at least 148th after the Open, when she'll have played the three required tournaments she needs to return to the list.

"I still feel like I can improve," she said. "But I'm definitely comfortable where I am right now."

Serena began the quest for her fourth U.S. Open title with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Alexa Glatch.

Serena entered Monday's play ranked second in the world behind Dinara Safina, even though Williams has won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year and Safina is without a Grand Slam title.

Seeking her second straight U.S. Open championship, Serena hit 18 winners and had 19 unforced errors in an uneven start to the tournament. It was still good enough to beat Glatch, who earned a wild-card entry into the draw.

"You just try not to think about the occasion," Glatch said. "You try to pretend it's any other court and you're playing against any other opponent. But it's very hard to do, especially when it's your first time out there in the biggest stadium there is."

Two-time major champion Amelie Mauresmo won easily, as did No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 8 Victoria Azarenka, No. 10 Flavia Pennetta, No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 14 Marion Bartoli, whose next opponent is Clijsters.

Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up, also happens to have been the first woman Clijsters played in her comeback. Clijsters beat her.

"I just have to go on court and think I'm still the player with the better ranking, so I'm supposed to win," Bartoli said Monday. "This time I know what to do. I have a plan, so it's going to be different."

Ai Sugiyama's record 62nd consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam ended with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat by 15th seed Samantha Stosur.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.