Isner, Murray, del Potro, some surprises

Yesterday was one for pushing the outer limits in the U.S. Open men's competition. With John Isner, naturally, a part of the show.

Andy Murray, the fourth-ranked Scot still looking for his first major-tournament title, and Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 Open champ who missed more than a year because of wrist surgery, both won their first-round matches. Nothing out of this world about that.

Nor about No. 21 Andy Roddick's 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win over fellow American Michael Russell.

But three low-profile Americans -- Alex Bogomolov Jr., Robby Ginepri and Jack Sock -- expanded home-nation expectations a bit by advancing. While Isner, the 6-9 Carolinian who a year ago stretched the boundaries of tennis endurance and logic, once again went close to the edge against Marcos Baghdatis, the pesky Cypriot veteran once ranked as high as No. 8.

Isner and Baghdatis wrestled to the tiebreaker in the first two sets. And beyond, stringing out the second of the first-to-seven-points tiebreaker to 24 points before Isner at last prevailed, 13-11. It hardly was the 70-68 fifth-set death march Isner survived at Wimbledon last year.

But the rules prevent that sort of thing here, and Isner -- seeded 28th -- needed four sets to win, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (11), 2-6, 6-4, despite 62 unforced errors.

"I was a little bit luckier than he was," Isner said. "The first two sets, essentially, were a coin flip. Marcos is such a good competitor and crowd favorite that it's always fun to play him."

Among the others feeling fortunate were: Murray, who eliminated India's Somdev Devvarman in three sets and kidded (sort of): "Try being a British player going into a Grand Slam. It's not easy."

And del Potro, a straight-sets winner over Italy's Filippo Volandri. "For me, just to be here playing this tournament, or playing tennis again, it's amazing," he said.

And Ginepri, the 2005 Open semifinalist now ranked 363rd after his career almost ended when a darting squirrel caused a bicycle crash last October, necessitating elbow surgery that put him in a cast for six weeks. "I'm just happy to be playing again," he said after a four-set victory over Joao Souza of Brazil.

And Bogomolov, back from wrist surgery and a tennis teaching job in Harlem. Bogomolov, up to a career-high 44th in the rankings at 28, rebounded from two sets down to beat his doubles partner, fellow American Steve Johnson, and said, "I always thought that if you worked hard, eventually the tennis gods would repay you."

And Sock, the 18-year-old reigning Open juniors champ who opted to turn pro rather than attend college and recorded his first Grand Slam event victory in five sets against the tournament's oldest player, 34-year-old Marc Gicquel of France.

"Pretty happy, yeah," Sock confirmed. "I felt my game was ready . Obviously, this is a different level of play. But I'm excited to travel the world and play the sport I love."