FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. -- World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, former top-ranked star Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Roger Federer were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the U.S. Open.

The Serbian Ivanovic, who's battled a thumb injury in recent weeks, snuck past Russian Vera Dushevina 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 on a beautiful sunny day at this Big Apple fortnight. A fourth-seeded Serena, meanwhile, subdued Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-4.

Switzerland's Federer, the men's second seed, had no problems in his first round matchup as he dispatched Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez in straight sets 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. Federer is the four-time defending champion. The 12-time major champ beat Novak Djokovic in last year's final.

Ivanovic appeared to be cruising on Day 2, up a set and leading 4-2 in the second, but some sloppy play allowed her Russian counterpart to sneak into the match.

Dushevina fought back to claim the second set and was leading 3-2 in the third before Ivanovic righted the ship. The Serbian star went on to capture the third by converting on a third match point after 2 hours, 3 minutes of uneventful tennis.

Ivanovic is the reigning French Open champ and was this year's runner-up at the Australian Open. She's played in three of the last six major finals.

Up next for Ivanovic will be little-known Frenchwoman Julie Coin.

The eight-time major titlist Serena handled Bondarenko in a mere 57 minutes, capping the win with a second match point. The powerful American captured the U.S. Open in 1999 and 2002 and was the runner-up here in 2001.

Seventh-seeded Venus, who is a two-time U.S. Open champ, had no problems against Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-3. Venus owns seven major titles, including the last two Wimbledons.

Ivanovic and Serena were joined in the second round by surging Russian star Dinara Safina, who handled American teenager Kristie Ahn 6-3, 6-4 on the grounds at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The sixth-seeded Safina was the French Open runner-up to Ivanovic and the runner-up at the Olympic tennis tournament two weeks ago.

Safina, the younger sister of 2000 men's U.S. Open champion Marat Safin, will face Italian Roberta Vinci in the round of 64.

Safin went the distance to get past veteran American Vincent Spadea 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 at Ashe Stadium on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The former world No. 1 and two-time major titlist Safin captured the U.S. Open back in 2000. The big Russian will meet Spaniard Tommy Robredo in the second round.

Ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland cruised with a 6-4, 6-2 pasting of Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, while an upset came when former Top-20 German Anna-Lena Groenefeld grounded 11th-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-2. The former Top-10 Hantuchova has now dropped eight of her last 12 matches and hasn't won back-to-back matches since March.

In other action involving Top-16 seeds, No. 13 Hungarian Agnes Szavay topped American Gail Brodsky 7-5, 6-3 and No. 16 Italian Flavia Pennetta overcame Swiss Stefanie Vogele 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

No. 17 seed Alize Cornet of France dispatched compatriot Camille Pin 7-5, 6-0; No. 18 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia bested American Jill Craybas 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and 19th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova brushed aside France's Olivia Sanchez 6-2, 6-4 at the fourth and final major of the year.

Additional seeded victors were No. 20 Czech Nicole Vaidisova, No. 27 Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, No. 30 Japanese Ai Sugiyama and No. 32 Amelie Mauresmo, while Swiss Timea Bacsinszky upended 31st-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-4, 6-1.

Other first-round women's winners were the aforementioned Coin, Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh and Yung-Jan Chan, Chinese Shuai Peng, Aussie Jessica Moore, Italians Vinci and Tathiana Garbin, Belarussian Olga Govortsova, Germany's Sabine Lisicki, Paraguayan Rossana De Los Rios, Estonian Kaia Kanepi, France's Severine Bremond, American Bethanie Mattek, Russian Elena Vesnina and Colombian Mariana Duque Marino.

Eleventh-seeded Chilean slugger Fernando Gonzalez advanced with a tough 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Spaniard Ivan Navarro. Gonzalez was the Olympic runner-up to world No. 1 Rafael Nadal at the Olympic tennis tournament two weeks ago.

A mild upset came when former Top-5 German star Tommy Haas erased 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet in a splendid five-setter, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Haas reached the quarterfinals here in three of the previous four years.

In other action involving Top-16 seeds, No. 13 Spaniard Fernando Verdasco vaulted past Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, and No. 15 Robredo rolled past German Mischa Zverev 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-1 and 6-foot-10 No. 14 Croat Ivo Karlovic handled Czech Jan Minar 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.

American Sam Querrey posted an upset by dismantling 22nd-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, while 23rd-seeded Russian Igor Andreev dropped Frenchman Marc Gicquel 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4 and 31st-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi edged out Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3. Other seeded action saw Czech Ivo Minar advance past 20th-seeded Nicolas Kiefer after the German retired in the fourth set and 24th-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated compatriot Sebastien Grosjean 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 6-2

Additional opening-round wins came for Finn Jarkko Nieminen, Spaniard Guillermo-Garcia Lopez, Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Devilder and Florent Serra, Korean Yen-Hsun Lu, Brazil's Thiago Alves, Americans Mardy Fish and Bobby Reynolds, Portugal's Rui Machado and Italian lucky-loser Flavio Cipolla, who replaced 21st-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the draw and outlasted Czech Jan Hernych 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-4).

The U.S. Open marks the fourth and final major of the year.