The US Open is up and running, with our sole men's survivor Carsten Ball being dispatched overnight by Albert Montanes from, of course, Spain. It's the first time Lleyton Hewitt has bowed out in the first round, but his US summer was heavily interrupted and there's no doubt he'll live to fight another day. Bernard Tomic, after impressively dispatching the no.1 seed in the first round of qualifying, wasn't able to back it up, and Pete Luczak was beaten in the 1st round of the main draw. So let's hope our men can regroup to mount an Aussie assault at our Grand Slam.

The women's side sees a lone Australian remaining, and as one would expect it's no.5 seed Samantha Stosur. who defeated Aussie Anastasia Rodionova in the second round. Jarmilla Groth had an unlucky pairing with Maria Sharapova, but gave the former US Open champion a mighty fright by winning the first set, and Sharapova admitted she really had to "hang in".  Although Groth couldn't sustain her aggressive tactics for the three sets, it showcased the huge strides she has taken this year, and underlined her undoubted potential to keep moving up the ranks.

The ever popular Alicia Molik couldn't hold out a "name" from the past, Mirjana Lucic, and our wildcard Sophie Ferguson unfortunately wasn't able to take advantage of a rare opportunity at this level. None the less, Sophie's progress this year has been commendable, and when you throw Jelena Dokic into the mix, we do have some depth now on the women's side.

And that's without mentioning a player most deserving of accolades, Melbourne teenager Sally Peers, who qualified and won a round. This is a real breakthrough for Sally.

In the second round, Peers was keeping loftier company when confronting her childhood idol, Kim Clijsters, in the vast expanse of Arthur Ashe stadium.

Aussie supporters swelled for the match, including Sally's brother John, who made the trip from Waco, Texas (where he's attending college) to warm up his sister in the stadium court. That'll be a special memory for the siblings.

Someone who couldn't watch the match, at least in the beginning, was our Fed Cup captain, David Taylor, who obviously would have had more than a passing interest in the budding Aussie as she took on Clijsters.

His dilemma was that the Peers Clijsters match was on court at the same time as the Stosur duel with Rodionova. This created a further minor dilemma of sorts, as Taylor is also Stosur's personal coach, and Rodionova is a member of the Fed Cup team - not the ideal draw for testing the divided loyalties of the captain!

To be fair, such dilemmas do occur on the Tour, as some coaches work with more than one player and, given the randomness of draws, they sometimes get to play each other, hopefully not in the first round, but after both have won matches! On those occasions, it is protocol that a coach of both players does not offer advice, and barracking is off limits. So I'm sure David Taylor, who is very professional, was a passive spectator in the Stosur v Rodionova encounter, but no doubt he'll revert to a proactive role in the next round where he'll only have eyes for one player!

Lets hope Stosur, our lone remaining racquetuer can keep winning and move up the court roster towards Ashe Stadium when the real action revs up in week two.