NEW YORK: Top seed Ana Ivanovic survived a scare at the US Open yesterday before scraping past Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round.

The Serbian, chasing her first US Open title, lost her way late in the second set in but bounced back to clinch victory in just over two hours.

French Open champion Ivanovic, who missed the Olympics with a right thumb injury, cruised through the first set and led 4-2 in the second before her game unraveled.

World No. 57 Dushevina forced a decider and saved two match points but the top seed finally prevailed to set up a clash with Julie Coin of France or Australian Casey Dellacqua.

Daniela Hantuchova, on the comeback trail after being sidelined with a foot injury earlier this year, was crushed 6-4, 6-2 by German qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the US Open first round.

The 11th-seeded Slovakian, who reached the last four at the Australian Open in January, struggled to find her range against the big-serving German and was swept aside in 71 minutes. Groenefeld, world-ranked 141st after reaching a career-high 14th in 2006, kept her opponent on the back foot by dominating from the baseline and firing down seven aces.

Dinara Safina doused the youthful exuberance of grand slam debutante Kristie Ahn with a 6-3, 6-4 win to reach the second round.

The Russian sixth seed made no allowances for Ahn, who at 16 is the youngest woman in the draw, and showed off her repertoire of groundstrokes and thundering serves to get her campaign off to a flying start.

• On Monday, Olympic champions Rafael Nadal and Elena Dementieva showed their mettle at the US Open, overcoming early challenges to win Monday in the start of what’s expected to be a wide-open tournament. Former champs Lindsay Davenport and Svetlana Kuznetsova also opened with straight-sets victories. Many of the stars like to hurry through the first round — it takes seven wins for the title, and any rest is welcome.

Playing for the first time as the top-ranked player on the ATP tour, Nadal swatted his very first shot wide against No. 136 Bjorn Phau. The Wimbledon and French Open champ was two points from dropping the first set when he surged and, despite needing to bandage a nasty blister, won 7-6, 6-3, 7-6. No. 9 seed James Blake had to play past midnight to survive a five-set match against 19-year-old fellow American Donald Young. With the help of two key calls overturned on challenges in the last two games, Blake won 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Dementieva looked like gold while taking the final four games to defeat Akgul Amanmuradova 6-4, 7-5. The fifth-seeded Russian was glad to win quickly and give her mind and body a break.

Tenth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze was the top player to lose, beaten by Ekateria Makarova 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a match-up of Russians. No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over American CoCo Vandeweghe.

Li Na, who beat Venus Williams in Beijing, beat No. 24 Shahar Peer of Israel 2-6, 6-0, 6-1. The No. 23-seeded Davenport defeated Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, 6-4, 6-2 and No. 3 Kuznetsova beat Zhang Shuai of China 6-4, 6-2. No. 8 Vera Zvonareva of Russia, No. 12 Marion Bartoli of France, No. 14 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Swiss No. 15 Patty Schnyer also won. No. 22 Maria Kirilenko of Russia lost to Austria’s Tamira Paszek 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

On the men’s side, fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain beat Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 and No. 6 Andy Murray of Britain beat Sergio Roitman of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.

Also winning were No. 7 David Nalbandian of Argentina, No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, No. 16 Gilles Simon of France.

Also winning were No. 7 David Nalbandian of Argentina, Swiss No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 16 Frenchman Gilles Simon and No. 17 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.

Spanish No. 27 Feliciano Lopez lost to Jurgen Melzer of Austria 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. The No. 29-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina lost to Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.