Cilic overcomes uneven effort to advance at U.S. Open

Croatian Marin Cilic and American John Isner were among the seeded players to prevail on Day 1 of the U.S. Open.

The fifth-seeded Cilic, the 2014 champion here, and No. 10 Isner each needed four sets to capture their first-round matches Monday at Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Cilic had an erratic performance in his 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Tennys Sandgren of the United States, committing more unforced errors (57) than winners (55).

While showing the rust from not playing since Wimbledon, Cilic had 11 aces and won 86 percent of his first-serve points to advance to a second-round matchup against Germany’s Florian Mayer.

Isner rode his best weapon — a big serve — to a 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France.

The 6-foot-11 Isner, who won at Newport and Atlanta in July but was bounced in the third round last week at Winston-Salem, uncorked 22 aces — twice as many as his opponent — to win in two hours, 23 minutes.

In advancing to a second-round matchup against South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, Isner converted five of nine service breaks and delivered 59 winners to 38 for the Frenchman.

Eighth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France had an easier time in his opening match, breezing to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Romania’s Marius Copil.

Tsonga won 94 percent (49 of 52) of his first-serve points and had 13 aces to advance to a second-round matchup against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, who also won in straight sets.

No. 12 seed Pablo Carreno Busta dominated the first two sets en route to a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over American Evan King. Up next for the Spaniard is Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who moved on when Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov retired after dropping the first two sets.

David Ferrer of Spain, seeded 21st, took his opening set but won just six games the rest of the way in falling to Mikhail Kukushkin of Russia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.

Among the other straight-set winners in afternoon matches were American Steve Johnson, 28th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa, No. 29 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina and Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund, who ousted No. 32 seed Robin Haase.