Former champion Andy Roddick celebrated his 24th birthday by using a booming serve to overpower Kristian Pless of Denmark on Wednesday and book the first berth in the third round of the US Open.
Briton Andy Murray recovered from a bout of poor serving to beat hard-hitting American Robert Kendrick in the first round on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old Murray won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes to set up a second-round match against Italian Alessio Di Mauro.
The ninth-seeded Roddick served up 21 aces and never lost serve in beating the 25-year-old Pless, a former junior world number one, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.
Roddick dropped only 12 points from the service line.
The American, revitalised since taking on five-times US Open champion Jimmy Connors as his coach this summer, blistered 40 winners in the 91-minute match.
Roddick, however, was not entirely pleased with his ball striking, feeling he lacked depth on his groundstrokes.
"I hit the ball a lot cleaner the other day," he said of his first-round victory over France's Florent Serra.
"That being said, I mean, it's nice to walk off the court not feeling like you played your best and looking at a stat sheet and seeing 40 winners and 22 errors, you know, being plus 18.
"I guess that's a good thing overall. But I think I can hit a little better."
Roddick, the 2003 winner, will meet either 22nd seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain or Brazilian qualifier Thiago Alves in the third round.
BOOMING SERVE
With Connors looking on under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Roddick set the tone early, winning four service games at love in the opening set.
The second set stayed on serve through to a tiebreak, which Roddick claimed 7-3.
A double fault by Pless, ranked 116th, gave Roddick the service break he needed in the eighth game of the third set and he closed out the match with another love game behind his blistering serve that regularly topped 130-mph.
Roddick could not find much wrong with his serve.
"I'm getting a lot of action on it. My wide one on the deuce side, really, they're having to hit it from outside the alley," he said.
"I'm hitting a good kick on the first serve on the ad side, as well."
Roddick said having a birthday at the Open, as Connors always did, hardly registered during the tournament and that he tried to spend the day pumping himself up for a match.
