Future on display as Roddick wins

Young gun Andy Roddick, awarded his first featured night match at the U.S. Open, did his best Pete Sampras impression on Tuesday to join the four-time champion in the second round.

One year after winning the U.S. Open junior title and two days shy of his 19th birthday, Roddick carried the mantle of "future of American tennis" into the Arthur Ashe Stadium and wore it with poise in an impressive 6-4 6-1 6-2 dismantling of 121st-ranked Czech Slava Dosedel.

Seeded 18th, Roddick reached match point with a leaping overhead volley winner right out of the Sampras repertoire and followed it up with a screaming 137 miles per hour (220 kph) ace -- his 17th of the match.

"It felt great," he said of his first match on centre court at the Open.

"I just wanted to get out there, put some balls in the court in the first set and I started rolling in the second and third. I felt good," said Roddick, who belted 41 winners and never dropped his serve.

Earlier, Sampras held off Frenchman Julien Boutter 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (8-6) to open his campaign for a fifth U.S. Open crown. After the match he was asked about his heir apparent.

"People are looking at who the next crop of young Americans are," said 30-year-old Sampras, who was in a similar position to Roddick when John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors were in the twilight of their careers.

"Me and Andre (Agassi) are getting up there in age ... and we're looking for another champion. That's why there's a lot of focus on Andy as being the main guy," Sampras said.

"I just don't think Pete and Andre are fading," insisted Roddick, who has wins this year over four former top-ranked players, including Sampras.

OFF YEAR

"Pete is having an off year and he's 10 in the world, which is pretty awesome. They're definitely still here ... and they're not going to go away," he added.

While Roddick sailed through his last two sets, Sampras battled back from 2-5 down in the third-set tie-break to avoid going into a fourth and possibly beyond.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner said getting out of his match in straight sets was "huge".

"It was a good one to get through because at the level he was playing it could have been an upset," said Sampras, last year's runner-up who is looking to end a drought of 17 tournaments without a title.

The expansion to 32 seeds was supposed to protect the top players from dangerous opponents in the first two rounds but the theory does not always translate into reality as eighth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean found out.

Grosjean, rusty after a six-week layoff with an ankle injury, was beaten 6-4 6-3 6-4 by 103rd-ranked Argentine Mariano Zabaleta.

Fifth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov nearly joined Grosjean before pulling out five-set victories in their first-round matches.

Ferrero, twice a Grand Slam semifinalist this year, staged a dramatic comeback for a 1-6 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-0 victory over Arnaud Di Pasquale.

Ferrero broke Di Pasquale to stay alive as the Frenchman served for the match at 6-5 in the fourth set. He then swept to victory as the worn out Frenchman folded to suffer his eighth successive first-round defeat.

"He was a little bit cramping in the tie-break and I think that was the key for the fifth set. I think I was more fresh than him," said Ferrero, winner of four titles this year.

"I'm thinking I have to practice a little bit to try to play better than today."

Kafelnikov, a former French and Australian Open champion, took a see-saw struggle with Swiss Michel Kratochvil 1-6 6-1 5-7 6-4 6-4.

The Russian Olympic champion let a 5-2 fifth-set lead slip away but held on for victory on the same grandstand court on which Ferrero barely survived.

Todd Martin, king of five-set night matches at the Open, somehow managed to get out in three with a 6-4 6-4 7-5 win over fellow American Michael Russell, who made a name for himself at this year's French Open by taking triple champion Gustavo Kuerten to five sets in the fourth round.