{"id":22157,"date":"2013-08-27T13:53:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T11:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/nadal-and-williams-advance-with-ease-at-us-open\/"},"modified":"2013-08-27T13:53:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T11:53:33","slug":"nadal-and-williams-advance-with-ease-at-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/nadal-and-williams-advance-with-ease-at-us-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadal and Williams advance with ease at US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Rafael<\/a><\/p>\n

Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams in US Open cruise, rain holds up Roger Federer. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

US Open favourites Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams cruised into the US Open on Monday but 17-time major winner Roger Federer was thwarted by rain.<\/p>\n

Nadal, the second-seeded 2010 champion who watched the 2012 US Open from his home in Spain as he endured a seven-month injury layoff, cruised to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over America\u2019s Ryan Harrison to record a 16th win on hard courts this year.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Spaniard has captured nine trophies since his return from injury in February, building up a 54-3 record in the process, and came into New York having won back-to-back Masters titles at Montreal and Cincinnati, comfortably erasing his shock first-round exit at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a special emotion to be back in New York. It\u2019s a special atmosphere,\u201d said Nadal, who next tackles either Canada\u2019s Vasek Pospisil or Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous before the start, but I hope to have these nerves again in the future if it means I win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending women\u2019s champion Serena Williams, a four-time winner, needed just an hour to see off Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone, 6-0, 6-1.<\/p>\n

The top seed fired 13 winners and broke the former French Open champion six times on her way to a second round match-up against Kazakhstan\u2019s Galina Voskoboeva.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI knew playing a former Grand Slam champion the first round was a tough draw so I just tried to be super serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federer, the former five-time champion and seeded a lowly seventh this year, was due to take on Slovenia\u2019s Grega Zemjla in the closing match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n

But heavy late evening rain meant the Swiss star, still bruised by his second round loss at Wimbledon \u2013 his worst All England defeat in a decade<\/a> \u2013 will have to try again on Tuesday. \u2013 AFP<\/a><\/p>\n

For more US Open news,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more breaking sporting news and views, visit MySport24 on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams in US Open cruise, rain holds up Roger Federer. Photo: AFP US Open favourites Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams cruised into the US Open on Monday but 17-time major winner Roger Federer was thwarted by rain. Nadal, the second-seeded 2010 champion who watched the 2012 US Open from his home in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-22157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}