Nadal wins teen battle as top seeds progress
Sharapova unfazed by wind
Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal withstood the determined challenge of a fellow teenager to keep his US Open bid intact on Wednesday.
American 18-year-old Scoville Jenkins, ranked 350 places below Nadal and playing only his third grand slam match, forced the fist-pumping French Open champion to fight surprisingly hard for a 6-4 7-5 6-4 second round victory.
"Today was very difficult, he is a very good player," said the 19-year-old world number two after reaching the third round at Flushing Meadows for the first time in swirling wind on Arthur Ashe Court.
"I needed to play 100 per cent to win this match."
The blustery remnants of Hurricane Katrina proved more troublesome than any on-court opponent for Maria Sharapova and the other title contenders.
Women's top seed Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and the Williams sisters Venus and Serena were all unruffled, sweeping into round three without the loss of a single set.
Men's third seed Lleyton Hewitt hurried through to the second round with a 6-1 6-2 6-1 victory over former French Open champion Albert Costa.
Gusts of up to 65 kph turned the ball sideways on occasions at Flushing Meadows but for 18-year-old Russian Sharapova, it was a cakewalk.
She adapted quickly to thrash Madagascan opponent Dally Randriantefy 6-1 6-0.
"It's so windy today I'm really glad I had a piece of chocolate cake last night or else I would have been blown away out here," said the slender Russian, who has only dropped three games in her two matches so far.
"When it's windy like this you never know what to expect."
Clijsters initially found the weather and Colombian opponent Fabiola Zuluaga more difficult to cope with before earning a 7-5 6-0 second-round win.
Wimbledon champion Venus Williams beat Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-1 6-3 to move a step closer to a possible fourth round showdown with younger sister Serena, like her, a two-time former champion at Flushing Meadows.
"This is the windiest conditions I've ever played in," said Venus, who plays Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in the third round.
"And it was quite hot so there were a lot of factors."
Eighth seed Serena, still feeling her way back after knee and ankle trouble, was not at her best but did not need to be to beat Colombia's Catalina Castano 6-2 6-2.
Russia's Nadia Petrova, seeded nine, also eased through 6-2 6-0 against Japan's Aiko Nakamura.
In the men's draw Australian Mark Philippoussis's disappointing year continued in depressing fashion.
The 1998 US Open runner-up lost 6-4 6-2 7-5 to Slovakia's Karol Kucera in the first round.
Russian Ekaterina Bychkova, who knocked out defending women's champion Svetlana Kuz-netsova in the first round of the tournament, lost 7-5 6-1 to Croatian qualifier Ivana Lisjak.