ESPN Tennis

NEW YORK -- Second-seeded Andy Murray played a patient, steady game to defeat big-hitting Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 in his first-round match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday.

Murray traded baseline blows with 95th-ranked Gulbis in the first set and Gulbis responded with wild misses and blistering winners, pushing the Scot to five set points before finally succumbing to a service break in the 12th game.

Murray, runner-up last year to Roger Federer in his first Grand Slam final, then varied his attack by mixing in forays to the net and took advantage of mounting mistakes from Gulbis, who had 51 unforced errors, 30 more than Murray.

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Jim McIsaac/Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic, the U.S. Open runner-up in 2007, advanced to the second round.

"When I needed to, I upped my game," Murray said. "My concentration could have been a bit better. But for a first match, it was very good because he played very well."

Murray said he enjoyed playing under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium before a crowd of nearly 24,000.

"I enjoy playing on that court," he said. "It's one of the biggest in the world. It's probably the coolest atmosphere out of all of the Slams.

"Hopefully I'll play a lot of my matches on there," he said.

Murray advanced to a second-round match against 87th-ranked Paul Capdeville of Chile.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic made an impressive start to his title bid as he beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in the first round.

The Serb, runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2007, was right on top of his game as he beat the Croat for the fourth time in five meetings.

Early breaks in each of the first two sets put Djokovic in charge and he broke once more in the eighth game of the third to clinch a comfortable victory.

The fans were gracious to Djokovic, who was booed loudly a year ago after he made some sarcastic comments toward Andy Roddick during a courtside interview.

"What happened last year was like a fight with a girlfriend," he said. "These things happen. It was something that everybody can learn from it.

"I always felt at home here. I played so well last three years. I see no reason for me thinking about something that happened already. So today was great. I just hope that the fans will behave nice in the next rounds," he said.

Djokovic will next face qualifier Carsten Ball of Australia, who beat qualifier Juan Pablo Brzezicki of Argentina 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4.

Seventh-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France breezed into the second round by beating 18-year-old Chase Buchanan of the United States 6-0, 6-2, 6-1.

Tsonga was the runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open. The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament at which he's never reached at least the fourth round.

"I'm here to win and to go to the next step," he said. "The next step for me is to be in the five best players in the world."

Tsonga played cleanly, making only 12 unforced errors, 24 fewer than Buchanan, who was the youngest man in the field. Buchanan was awarded a wild card by the U.S. Tennis Association as the 2009 USTA boys' 18s champion.

Buchanan, of New Albany, Ohio, was making his Grand Slam debut. He had never faced anyone ranked higher than 121st.

Other winners included No. 10 Fernando Verdasco, No. 16 Marin Cilic, No. 17 Tomas Berdych, No. 22 Sam Querrey and No. 30 Viktor Troicki, but No. 29 Igor Andreev fell to American Jesse Witten, who earned the first tour-level victory of his career.

"I hit with John McEnroe the other day, and he was really being helpful," Witten said. "He was trying to give me pointers."

Taylor Dent, playing in the U.S. Open for the first time since 2005, eliminated Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 7-5.

"I wanted to be here competing and playing well and playing matches. So to be back here accomplishing that is pretty remarkable," said Dent, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 21 in 2005. "I still have a long way to go. I still feel like my game is still pretty rough around the edges. But it's extremely exciting."

Dent had two back operations and was told by doctors to forget about playing professional tennis again. The serving motion he had to adjust because of his back problems managed to produce 18 aces against Lopez. Dent still plays the hard-charging, serve-and-volley style he always has, and he won 39 of 58 points when he went to the net.

If Dent gets a day off before having to play in the second round, will he have time to recover? Will he be fine to play again that quickly?

"We'll find out," he said. "I believe I'll be ready to go. I'll be jumping out of my skin."

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