Djokovic, Nadal, Serena advance, Li Na out in U.S. Open

 　　NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both advanced into the second round of U.S. Open, while China's French Open champion Li Na subsided¹ in the first round on Tuesday.

　　Nadal, the defending U.S. Open champion and this year's second-seeded player, didn't turn in a starring performance, but he managed through Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-3, 7-6 (1) and 7-5 in almost three hours.

　　Djokovic enjoyed a comfortable walk through into the second round as his opponent Conor Niland retired² trailing 6-0, 5-1 for food poisoning, who threw up and pulled out of the tournament in just 44 minutes.

　　American favorite contender Serena Williams, playing her first match in New York for two years because of injuries, powered through the night session match 6-1, 6-1 over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski in 56 minutes.

　　Fifth-seeded Li suffered the second successive opening round exit at the Flushing Meadow, after committing 54 unforced errors, 35 more than her 53th-ranked opponent Halep. The 19-year-old won the match in 6-3, 7-5.

　　"I was feeling tennis just too tough for me now," said Li. "I want to dewell after Roland Garros, but always lose early. Now I even lose all the confidence on the court."

　　Golubev, who was ranked 98thin the world and who had gone through a stretch of losing 17 straight matches this season, was leading Nadal, 4-2, in the second set after breaking the Spaniard at love and was making Nadal cranky by pounding winners from both sides and bringing Nadal forward with tricky³ drop shots.

　　"I was a little lucky to win in straight sets," Nadal said. "He was a very difficult player to play. He played very fast."

　　Li's elimination⁴ marked a second round of U.S. Open without a reigning⁵ Grand Slam singles champion remaining, just the first since 1971.

　　On Monday, the Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova from Czech Republic, also made an early exit.

1 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

4 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

5 reigning   

adj.统治的，起支配作用的

参考例句：

• The sky was dark, stars were twinkling high above, night was reigning, and everything was sunk in silken silence. 天很黑，星很繁，夜阑人静。
• Led by Huang Chao, they brought down the reigning house after 300 years' rule. 在黄巢的带领下，他们推翻了统治了三百年的王朝。