Mardy Fish gets easy win to start Open

An All-American men's U.S. Open final cannot be cavalierly dismissed just yet. Though the odds are heavily against it, Mardy Fish kept hope alive by sailing through his first-round match Monday.

Since the other two Yanks in the top half of the draw -- 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and 30-year-old journeyman Michael Yani -- both lost in straight sets, it is left for Fish to hold up his end of the deal.

All of the other 11 U.S. men in the tournament are in the opposite half of the bracket and will commence play today.

Their chances are even more remote than those of Fish, who at 29 has emerged as the tennis Captain America. Thirty pounds lighter than before a 2009 knee operation, Fish is seeded higher -- at No. 8 -- than in his previous 10 Opens and awarded the honor of playing the tournament's first match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

He responded by pummeling Tobias Kamke, a 25-year-old German ranked 92nd, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

"This is probably the biggest tournament I've ever played," Fish said, with the highest expectations. Now that he has passed No. 21 Andy Roddick, the 2003 Open champ and top-ranked American for a decade, Fish is having "a ton of fun" with his new circumstance.

"But sometimes I feel I'm playing with house money a little bit," he said, "just because I would never have imagined, two years ago, to be in this position."

Still, two Americans have not dueled for the Open crown -- men or women -- since 2002, when Pete Sampras defeated Andre Agassi and Serena Williams beat her sister Venus, a streak likely to continue.

Though Harrison's potential has impressed U.S. Tennis Association officials, the Louisiana native was quickly out of sorts against No. 27 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, an Open quarterfinalist two years ago, in a 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) loss.

Harrison repeatedly gave back service breaks to Cilic and regularly slumped around the court, flicking his racket to the ground in frustration. "Obviously, you're not going to feel good whenever that is going on," Harrison said. "But I didn't break any rackets. I didn't say any swear words on court. I didn't really go nuts."

He was booed by the Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd, anyway, while Yani came and went quietly on Court 11, losing to 18-year-old Australian Bernard Tomic, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

There always is possibility, though. It was after making the quarters here in 2008, only to be shelved by knee surgery, when Fish found "you look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'How badly do you want to give it everything you've got just to see where you can go?' "