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The shocking upset of Andy Roddick seemed to still linger in the air that fills the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. It took the exceptional tennis of the 19th seed Mardy Fish to awaken the subdued crowd in the Armstrong Stadium. The shy man now has the honour of being the highest ranked American left in the draw, and he carried the star spangled banner with dignity. The GOAT Roger Federer got off to a breezy start even as the winds gusted through Arthur Ashe, in a straight set victory over the German Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 41 minutes. The French renaissance - as many as 12 Frenchmen made the second round - took in its wake the sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko; the resurgent Richard Gasquet dominated the Russian for a thumping 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 upset that took an hour and 53 minutes. Also taking the exit route from Flushing Meadows was 11th seed Marin Cilic beaten in a minute under 5 hours by the talented Japanese prodigy Kei Nishikori 5-7, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1.

Federer had an almost perfect match slamming 29 winners past his clueless opponent as he dominated proceedings. He raced away to 5-0 lead in just 14 minutes before Beck clawed back three straight games. That did not prevent the Swiss from serving out the set. Beck enjoyed a breakpoint early in the second set, but Federer stepped up his serve to blitz through the remainder of the match. The world number two won 80% of his first serve points besides serving 15 aces to advance to the third round. On Saturday he will take on Paul-Henri Mathieu, the man who took out Lleyton Hewitt in the first round. It's the perfect start, sure," said Federer. "I played Monday, had two days off. I had another easy one physically today and here I am in the third round feeling like I'm completely in the tournament."

American Mardy Fish was broken by Pablo Cuevas in the third game of the first set and when the Uruguayan consolidated the advantage in the next game, the sparse crowd in the Louis Armstrong Stadium couldn't help but reminisce about the shock loss of their favourite son the previous evening. Through the next few games Fish played percentage tennis to try and find a way back into the set, but Cuevas held off the challenge. Fish's patience paid off in the tenth game, when Cuevas tightened up while serving for the set and committed three unforced errors to concede the break.

The next service game was a breeze for Fish as he rediscovered a new spring in his step and took a 6-5 lead. A rattled Cuevas dropped serve to lose the first set and never quite recovered from the psychological scar of failing to serve out the opening set. Fish took advantage of the momentum swing to outplay Cuevas to post a comprehensive 7-5, 6-0, 6-2 victory to extend the best summer of his career into the third round in New York. Fish will play Arnaud Clement in the third round - the Frenchman earned a pass to the next round when his opponent Eduardo Schwank retired at 3-6, 5-5 unable to play on due to a twisted ankle he suffered mid-way through the second set.

In one of the feature matches of the day, the sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko faced Frenchman Richard Gasquet. The early pickings went Gasquet's way as he broke the Russian in the sixth game and consolidated to take a 5-2 lead. He wrapped up the set in the ninth game serving an ace down the middle. The Russian couldn't come close to breaking Gasquet even once and the Frenchman completed the rout in a little inside two hours. Davydenko had to take almost three months off to recover from a wrist injury and form is eluding the battling Russian.

Kei Nishikori had a set point on the Marin Cilic serve in the tenth game of the first set, but squandered it by sending a backhand long. Cilic gave him a second opportunity when he served a double fault at game point, before adding an unforced error off his backhand to hand the Japanese a second set point. Yet again Cilic bailed himself out with his typically big serve to level the set. Cilic has impressive footwork for his gangly frame and he was all over the diminutive Nishikori gaining the break in the eleventh game. He served a couple of aces to earn his first set point, and then a big service winner down the middle to wrap up the set in the twelfth game.

The battle between the two young players, both 21 years old and coming back from injury setbacks intensified in the second set. Nishikori may not compare well with Cilic in terms of height, but the gutsy kid from Japan stood tall despite the early setback to take the second set 8-6 in a tie-break. And even though Nishikori needed treatment midway through the third set, he emerged victorious after a five hour marathon to edge past the Croatian 5-7, 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1. The final set was an anti-climax with the Japanese dominating a tired Cilic who appeared to have lost his wheels towards the end of the match, barely able to move anymore. Nishikori will play Albert Montanes for a place in the last 16, after the Spaniard outplayed Aussie Carsten Ball 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

The fifth seed Robin Soderling restored order to his campaign when he dismissed the American Taylor Dent 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in just 92 minutes. After being extended to a five set marathon in the first round, the Swede seemed fresh and ready for the challenges ahead, steam-rolling past Dent with an impeccable performance that included 34 winners and just 11 unforced errors. Next up for the French Open finalist is the young Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker who benefited from Ivan Dodig's retirement in the fourth set of their evenly contested match.

Other winners in the men's draw included the 13th seed Jurgen Melzer, former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero and American fan favourite James Blake.

Select Scores

Singles - Second Round[2] R Federer (SUI) d A Beck (GER) 63 64 63
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d T Dent (USA) 62 62 64
R Gasquet (FRA) d [6] N Davydenko (RUS) 63 64 62
K Nishikori (JPN) d [11] M Cilic (CRO) 57 76(6) 36 76(3) 61
[13] J Melzer (AUT) d R Berankis (LTU) 64 67(4) 63 16 75
[19] M Fish (USA) d P Cuevas (URU) 75 60 62
[21] A Montanes (ESP) d C Ball (AUS) 64 63 61
[22] J Ferrero (ESP) d R Mello (BRA) 61 64 64
J Blake (USA) d P Polansky (CAN) 67(1) 63 62 64
P Mathieu (FRA) d G Rufin (FRA) 76(3) 64 63
T de Bakker (NED) d I Dodig (CRO) 67(4) 62 63 32 retired
A Clement (FRA) d E Schwank (ARG) 63 55 retired
[3] Novak Djokovic (SRB) d. 75 63 76(6)

Doubles - First Round
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d E Butorac (USA) / J Rojer (AHO) 76(6) 63
J Erlich (ISR) / J Kerr (AUS) d [8] J Knowle (AUT) / A Ram (ISR) 75 67(3) 76(9)
[11] J Benneteau (FRA) / M Llodra (FRA) d C Ball (AUS) / C Guccione (AUS) 63 76(4)

Click here for the Women's wrap

File Photograph Copyright: Beynaz Mistry