Jankovic comes back from brink at US Open

Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic admitted she had enjoyed a lucky escape after scraping past Simona Halep in the first round of the US Open.

In soaring temperatures at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Jankovic eventually prevailed 6-4 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 20 minutes, but only after world number 96 Halep had served for the match at 5-4 in the decider.

Jankovic revealed afterwards she had not initially realised the severity of the situation.

'I was in some sort of zone, I thought it was 4-3 and then thought, 'Oh my God',' she said. 'It was unbelievable, I'm so happy to get through.

'First-round matches are never easy and today was really hard. It wasn't my best game, so I had to work hard to get through. It's really hot out there, I don't know how many degrees but it's really hot, especially on one side (of the court) with the sun in my face.

'It was tough, I was lucky to get through and to have another chance.'

Jankovic will face Croatia's Mirjana Lucic in the second round, the former Wimbledon semi-finalist who vanished off the tour due to personal and financial problems.

Lucic, who beat Australian Alicia Molik 7-6 6-1, turned professional in April 1997 at the age of 15 and promptly won her first tournament, and was still just 15 when she won the Australian Open doubles title in 1998 with Martina Hingis.

'I feel fantastic, I'm so happy,' said Lucic, ranked 150th in the world. 'I worked so hard to get here, this is my first US Open since 2002.

'I don't want to go into the reasons about everything, it was just unfortunate why I haven't played. It wasn't because I was sick of tennis or anything like that. It was just a lot of unfortunate circumstances.

'My dream never died and never went away. I was just waiting for an opportunity. I have it and I've been living my dream the last couple of years. Every match I win now it's like winning an entire tournament.

'I was really lucky and blessed to be so good when I was so young. I grew up winning since I was six years old and it was always normal. But once that was taken away for years it's incredible; every match gives me such satisfaction.

'It's almost like walking blind for years and really struggling a lot to finally be free again and reminding myself of the old ways and how good I can play and that I can play with these girls and beat them.'

Elsewhere, former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova needed three sets to beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, the 11th seed eventually winning 6-2 4-6 6-1.

It took until 4:45pm local time on the second day for the first female seed to lose, China's Li Na going down in three sets to Kateryna Bondarenko.

Li, who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open earlier this year and was seeded eighth here, won the first set 6-2 but Ukrainian Bondarenko hit back to win the next two 6-4 6-2.