Brian Baker enjoys happy return to U.S. Open, wins first-round match in straight sets

Akin to the Rip Van Winkle of tennis, his career awakened after seven dormant years, Brian Baker suddenly finds himself back at the U.S. Open.

Plenty has changed at Flushing Meadows since he last played here in 2005, he noticed -- larger locker rooms, an improved workout facility, a new Court 17. But one thing is the same as he left it to undergo multiple hip operations and elbow ligament replacement surgery: Fretting over the wait for the next American men's major-tournament champion.

"I'm not one that's going to try to be the savior of U.S. tennis or anything like that," Baker cautioned Wednesday.

Once the world's No. 2 junior player, Baker, now 27, had just won his first-round match against Jan Hajek, a 29-year-old Czech journeyman who didn't come onto the Grand Slam scene until after Baker left, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

"I had some nerves," he said. "Being older, knowing how easy the game was taken away from me, it's very easy to appreciate this a lot. I don't take anything for granted."

It was the most recent step in Baker's unexpectedly rapid revival of what long ago seemed an enormously promising future. Starting at the lowest rung of pro tennis 13 months ago, Baker now is appearing in his third consecutive Grand Slam event; he won one match at the French Open in June and followed that with a rush to Wimbledon's fourth round.

During his forced sabbatical, "Of course you are realistic and know you might not be back," he said, "but I never once, you know, waved the white towel and said I'm not going to try anymore."

Now, good health and talent have put him back on the scene, where the differences begin with, "Well," he said, "seven years older."

While U.S. men's tennis, it seems, is deeper in debt. With only one player in the Top 10 -- No. 9 John Isner -- the daily questions persist. Does Andy Roddick, the last American male to win this tournament (in 2003), have high expectations of a late-round push as he celebrates his 30th birthday today?

"We don't deal like that, man," Roddick said. "You deal with what's in front of you. I don't think I ever said definitively, 'I'm going to be in the second [week]. I have never taken it that lightly. You go through the process and have respect for the guys you play first, second and third."

And what of Isner, who needed to win tight second- and fourth-set tiebreakers Wednesday to dismiss veteran Belgian Xavier Malisse, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (9)?

"A lot of people are projecting me to go far here," Isner said, "and I had my hands full. I'm happy to move on. Very happy. My goal in every Grand Slam is to make the second week, but that being said, I never overlook any opponent. I'm not good enough to do that."

But maybe, U.S. tennis officials hope, that among Isner, Baker, Roddick, Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey or even youngsters Jack Sock and Ryan Harrison (a straight-sets winner over Benjamin Becker Wednesday night), there is a sleeping giant.