Back on track, Andy aces forward

A little bit miffed at Roddick for his previous serve and a lot bummed with himself for his play, Fabrice Santoro, 35, the oldest man in the draw in his record 65th Grand Slam event, just stood there upright behind the baseline, refusing to crouch into a set position to return serve. Roddick waited, but Santoro stood. Roddick served, and Santoro ignored the ball.

He simply began walking to the net for the handshake after an unusually brisk 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 loss in 87 minutes, and Roddick’s best tennis night in “four or five months” — his words — had a little downer of an ending. “To end it like that, it was kind of, I guess, disappointing,” Roddick said.

On the penultimate point at 30-love, Roddick had blasted a 140-mph serve for a 14th ace and a first attempt to decapitate Santoro, well, at least if you’re asking Santoro. The ball whirred over Santoro’s head as he ducked, and later he blithely called himself “a little bit disappointed” with the serve, called Roddick “a good guy” but said, “He served right at me for sure, yeah. That’s a good strategy sometimes,” but not given the runaway score.

Venus powers into Round 3

On Thursday, Venus Williams kept favourites on the fast track at the US Open, overwhelming Rossana de Los Rios in less than an hour to reach the third round.

Williams, the US Open winner in 2000 and 2001, did not get much of a workout in the 59-minute match against the 113-ranked De Los Rios, 32, who has never gone beyond the second round at Flushing Meadows. In the third round, Williams will meet Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina overcame a couple of concentration lapses to defeat Italy’s Roberta Vinci...