Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic had a tough opening match at the US Open against world No.96 Simona Halep of Romania. As Jankovic said, she wasn’t playing her best tennis, but was able to get through.

The 2008 US Open finalist Jankovic lost the first set and found the 18-year-old Halep serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider. Halep was actually two points away from victory, but Jankovic then broke her serve and won all the remaining games to advance to the second round. Final score: 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Halep made her Grand Slam debut at this year’s French Open and lost in the first round as well.

Seed No.11 Svetlana Kuznetsova was pushed to three sets, 6-2 4-6 6-1, in her first round match against Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, whose last match in the US Open’s main draw prior to her this year’s appearance was a loss in the first round in 1996.

Kateryna Bondarenko sent home eighth-seeded Li Na with a 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Li, who reached at least the fourth round in her last three appearances at the US Open, blamed the heat for the defeat and her inability to cope with it. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Daniela Hantuchova avenged her last week’s 7-6(4) 7-6(2) defeat to Dinara Safina by beating the Russian 6-3 6-4 in the first round of the US Open. Safina has now lost in the first round of a Grand Slam for the second straight time, at Roland Garros and now at the US Open, while she skipped Wimbledon with a lower back injury.

The former world No.1 Safina, currently ranked 50th, fought hard in the match against seed No.24 Hantuchova, and had a chance to level at 5-5 in the second set, but Hantuchova stayed in there and Safina’s long return handed Hantuchova the victory in the end.

Fifth seed Samantha Stosur lost the first set to Elena Vesnina, and dropped serve right in the beginning of the second set, before breaking right back and eventually winning the set in a tiebreak to finally storm through the decider. Final score: 3-6 7-6(2) 6-1.

Defending champion Kim Clijsters cruised through the first set against world No.104 Greta Arn in just 18 minutes, without losing a single game. In the second set, however, the second-seeded Belgian found herself in a 4-0 deficit before winning 12 straight points (three games) and breaking Arn's serve in the 10th game and again in the last game to close out the match with the score 6-0 7-5.

The victory marks Clijsters’ 15th successive win at the US Open. The streak started at the 2005 US Open, which Clijsters won. Then she didn’t compete at the tournament until 2009, the year when she had an amazing run to another US Open title.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone eased into the second round of the 2010 US Open with a 6-1 6-0 victory over Ayumi Morita. American darling, Melanie Oudin, is also through. She defeated Olga Savchuk 6-3 6-0. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

You can finally buy items from Venus Williams’ EleVen clothing line as her partnership with the Gilt Group has materialized. Go to Gilt.com, sign up and you can add some of Venus’ famous dresses to your collection, like the white one, called the Goddess Dress, in which Venus won her fifth Wimbledon title in 2008.

Dress prices currently range from $79 to $99. As I can see they are on sale now and the sale ends August 30, 6 am CET. So use the opportunity if you want to "Look like a ten, feel like an EleVen".

Venus is happy that her designs have come to life again and said that new items will be available at Gilt.com in the future.

Additional info: Remind yourselves of Venus' 2008 and 2009 on-court outfits. (via Tennis Served Fresh)

Caroline Wozniacki remained undefeated at the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale (13-0), winning her third consecutive title at the tournament with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 win over Nadia Petrova in the final. It’s the Dane’s second title of the week, as she won the rain-delayed Rogers Cup final against Vera Zvonareva on Monday.

The top-seeded Wozniacki was leading 6-3 2-0 when Petrova took charge and won the second set of the New Haven final. Then in the third set Wozniacki established a 4-1 lead and although Petrova managed to come closer, to 4-3, Wozniacki played two good games to close out the match.

Wozniacki now heads to the US Open, where she is top seed, with four WTA titles this season, which is more than any other player on the Tour has won. Her first opponent at the US Open will be American wildcard Chelsey Gullickson, who is unranked. (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

This is the third time Caroline Wozniacki is playing at New Haven and she still hasn’t lost a match here, improving to 12-0 with a 1-6 6-3 7-6(5) triumph over Elena Dementieva in this year’s semifinals.

The top-seeded Wozniacki will play eighth seed Nadia Petrova in the final of the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale. Wozniacki is 2-1 lifetime against Petrova, with both the wins coming this season, at Indian Wells and Charleston. The one encounter Wozniacki lost was two years ago and she had to retire.

Wozniacki is occupying the top spot in the final Olympus US Open Series standings for 2010, meaning that the US Open title would bring her an additional $1 million. Wozniacki was runner-up at last year’s US Open, and this time she’ll be No.1 seed.

Additional info: A couple of days ago Wozniacki said how she would like to take a class or two at Yale, probably online. It would be a nice addition to her life, so that not everything revolves around tennis. She wanted to carry that idea out this year, but her professional obligations prevented her from doing so. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Rich from Down the Line has been busy visiting the pre-US Open events in New York, and the latest one he attended was the Taste of Tennis sponsored by BNP Paribas, where tennis stars joined a number of the world's top chefs for great food, a few cooking lessons and lots of partying all to benefit the New York Junior Tennis League.

Women’s tennis players spotted at the event were Victoria Azarenka, Christina McHale, Sorana Cirstea, Sabine Lisicki, Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters. Rich interviewed most of them about tennis and food and we’re expecting him to share the video soon.

Update: As promised, here are Rich's interviews. Really professional, he did a great job.

Nadia Petrova has reached her first final since 2008 and the 20th of her career after a 2-6 6-2 6-2 victory over Maria Kirilenko in the semis of the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale.

Kirilenko won the first set in 39 minutes, breaking the eighth-seeded Petrova twice and without dropping her own serve. But then Petrova started to play better and Kirilenko’s low back injury that she got "out of nowhere" took the toll. Petrova won all her service games in the remaining two sets and defeated her fellow Russian who refused to retire despite the pain.

The second semifinal will feature No.4 seed Elena Dementieva and No.1 seed Caroline Wozniacki. (photo courtesy of Fiji Water)

Fellow blogger Rich from Down the Line stopped by Nike Primetime Knockout Event that featured Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer playing doubles with actor Bradley Cooper, model Bar Refaeli and New York Giant Justin Tuck on Pier 54 in New York City.

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Top seed at the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale, Caroline Wozniacki, didn’t even have to play her quarterfinal match as Flavia Pennetta withdrew with a right foot injury. The Dane’s opponent in the semifinals will be No.4 seed Elena Dementieva who fought for exactly three hours to defeat No.6 seed Marion Bartoli 6-3 3-6 6-2.

Second seed Samantha Stosur was quickly beaten by seed No.7 Nadia Petrova, 6-2 6-1 in just 53 minutes. Stosur started the match by breaking Petrova’s serve, but from then on Petrova lost just three points in her other six service games and broke Stosur five times. Petrova now has 4-0 head-to-head record against Stosur, and all her wins came in straight sets (actually, she has never lost more than three games in any of those sets).

Maria Kirilenko will be Petrova’s opponent in the semifinals. Kirilenko advanced with a 6-3 6-3 win over Dinara Safina. After the match Kirilenko commented on Safina’s weakened game: "Before she was more aggressive, but now she's making longer points, and it's not hurting you as much." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The New York Times Magazine used various forms of media to show how power has changed women’s tennis. The feature including an article by Michael Kimmelman, extraordinary photos and awesome short slow motion videos by Dewey Nicks has attracted a lot of positive attention in the tennis world, so make sure to check it out.

The article mentions a number of women’s tennis players and their stories, the expansion of the WTA to the Chinese market, the increase in prize money and equal pay at Grand Slams, the difficulties tour pros (or "independent contractors" as Stacey Allaster, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, likes to call them) can face in earning a living, the influence of Serena and Venus Williams, etc.

The slideshow and videos include Serena Willams, Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva. I love how Dementieva's grace accompanies the delicate music of the video. Also, it's a nice surprise to see Sam looking like a ballet dancer. (via Down the Line)