NEW YORK, 31 August 2005 — Roger Federer took barely more than an hour to successfully begin defense of his US Open title yesterday, beating Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on another warm, humid day.

The victory was the top-seeded Federer’s 19th straight and 29th consecutive on hardcourts, defeating a 21-year-old making his US Open debut. The Swiss faced only one break point, converted seven of 10 of his own break-point opportunities, and completed the victory in 61 minutes.

Federer hasn’t lost since June in the French Open semifinals, where he was beaten by Rafael Nadal. He has played in three events since, winning in Halle, Germany; Wimbledon and Cincinnati.

He hasn’t lost on hardcourts since the Australian Open semifinals to Marat Safin, and a victory in New York would make him the first man in the Open era to win both Wimbledon and the US Open in consecutive years.

Like Monday, the day’s play began with temperatures around 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) and humidity about 70 percent under threatening cloudy skies. Light rain fell before the start of the second set but play continued without interruption.

Federer won when Minar hit a drop shot attempt into the net, and then rewarded the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium by smacking several balls into the seats.

No. 12 Tim Henman joined the ousted seeds list, falling 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. No. 9 Gaston Gaudio was eliminated on Monday.

In other early play yesterday, No. 24 women’s seed Shinobu Asagoe of Japan won her first match, beating Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France, 6-1, 6-4. Asagoe committed 30 unforced errors and converted only four of 14 break-point opportunities. Also, No. 17 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia-Montenegro beat Czech Denisa Chladkova 7-5, 6-3.

Meantime, like an ageless rock star, Andre Agassi took the court for his 20th straight US Open to roars that drowned out his introduction. He gave his adoring fans one more memory Monday night in a match that was little more than a practice session, and he left, as always, blowing kisses in all directions.

No one, not even Agassi, knows if this will be his last US Open, but if it is he started it out in fine fashion with a tidy 69-minute, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 romp over an overwhelmed and thoroughly outclassed Romanian, Razvan Sabau.

Cranking out 11 aces at up to 127 mph, drilling baseline winners at will, toying with drop shots and lobs, Agassi couldn’t have asked for a much easier start to the year’s last Grand Slam tournament. Agassi won the Open in 1994 and ‘99, was runner-up three times and has never missed the tournament since his first one in 1986. The love affair began anew for Agassi, and for the first time with a charismatic teen 16 years younger. Rafael Nadal and the US Open are made for each other. He is high-energy personified, a New York kind of guy — big, bold and muscular on court, impossible to ignore in his skintight, sleeveless, Big Apple red shirt and black toreador pants.

The king of clay, who captured the French Open two days after he turned 19 in June, showed in round one here that he can be just as dominating on hard courts.

Seeded second behind Roger Federer, Nadal unleashed fiery flashes reminiscent of a young Jimmy Connors amid a workmanlike 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 rout of hard-serving American wild card Bobby Reynolds on a hot, muggy opening day.

One point demonstrated Nadal’s talents and tenacity. He lunged to return a 123 mph serve by Reynolds, a former Vanderbilt All-American, leapt to catch up to two overheads and keep them in play, then sprinted in from beyond the baseline to pounce on Reynolds’ drop shot and pass him with a winner. The crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium roared as Nadal dropped dramatically to his knees and bounced to his feet, punching the air with a left-handed uppercut just as Connors once did. It is very different, too, for Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. A year after she emerged from virtual obscurity to win the title, she sprayed shots wildly in a 6-3, 6-2 loss to fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova and became the first US Open defending women’s champion to fall in the first round.

There was little surprise in Kuznetsova’s early ouster. She’s been struggling to find her rhythm all year and came into the Open with a mediocre 27-14 record and no titles.

It’s rare for a defending champion to lose in the first round at any Grand Slam event, but it’s happened twice this year. Anastasia Myskina did it at the French Open in May. Only two other women suffered similarly in the Open era since 1968 — Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1994 and Jennifer Capriati at the Australian in 2003. Four men’s defending champion of majors have lost, and only one was at the US Open — Patrick Rafter when he withdrew with a shoulder injury in the fifth set in 1999. Women’s top seed Maria Sharapova got off to a smart start, dispatching Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou 6-1, 6-1.

Serena and Venus Williams, each of them two-time champions, won in straight sets, though the No. 8 Serena looked less convincingly like a contender than her 10th-seeded big sister. Slower and heavier than in the past, Serena fell behind 3-1 in the second set before bearing down to beat 16-year-old qualifier Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan, 6-1, 6-3. Venus, trying to build on her Wimbledon triumph, breezed past Rika Fujiwara of Japan 6-3, 6-1.