It was good while it lasted.  As many expected, del Potro wasn’t ready to win a Slam.  At least, not this soon.  He cleared the first hurdle, which was winning a match.  In the two tournaments he played last in 2010, del Potro lost in the first round.  Once to Olivier Rochus and once to Feliciano Lopez.  At the very least, he won over Dudi Sela.

Marcos Baghdatis, however, is a different class of opponent.  Recently, he had shed some weight, partly, he says because he’s healthy enough to do training full-time.  He said his coach had told him to move del Potro around figuring movement would be something del Potro would take time to regain.  To del Potro’s credit, he did take a set off Baghdatis, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

And, perhaps that five setter against Hewitt was just too much.  Nalbandian looked awful against up-and-comer, Richard Berankis.  He couldn’t chase down shots.  By the end of the second set, he wasn’t even trying anymore, possibly the result of an injury.  Nalbandian retired in the third set after only winning a single game.  What’s bad news for Nalbandian is good news for Berankis who is now in the third round.

Robin Soderling continued to make progress at the AO, historically, his worst Slam.  He beat veteran Gilles Muller.  Muller made a decent US Open run a few years ago, but has not played consistently well since then.  It was a victory Soderling was expected to clinch, and he did.

Andy Murray also did not face problems against Illya Marchenko, winning in straight sets.

David Ferrer dominated Michael Russell for two sets, then the two played even for a third set, until Ferrer secured a break late and held for the win.

John Isner continues to show his ability to win tough matches.  Radek Stepanek is a tricky player, who has a penchant to come to net.  Stepanek won the first set, but Isner comfortably won the next three sets.

Jurgen Melzer won over Pere Riba in straight sets.  Thomaz Bellucci couldn’t win in 5 sets.  He lost to Jan Henrych 8-6 in the fifth set.

Day 5 is the start of the third round for the bottom half of the draw.  Xavier Malisse will play Roger Federer.  Stanislas Wawrinka will play Gael Monfils.  Monfils leads the head to head 2-1, including a win in Tokyo in 2010.

Victor Troicki plays Davis Cup partner and number 3 in the world, Novak Djokovic.  Djokovic has won the last 6 meetings with Troicki, but Troicki did push him to 5 sets as the US Open.

Andy Roddick plays Robin Haase.  This will be their first meeting.

Kei Nishikori plays Fernando Verdasco.  Verdasco had to play a 5 setter to get to the third round.  Nishikori is looking for his first big win.

Thomas Berdych plays Richard Gasquet.  Gasquet has a 2-1 winning record, but Berdych beat him (on clay) in 2010, and Gasquet’s last win was in 2007 over Berdych.

Nicolas Almagro takes on Ivan Ljubicic.  Ljubicic has a 3-1 record over Almagro, with the last 2 wins in Ljubicic’s favor.  However, both those wins were on clay.  They split their first 2 encounters on hard courts.

Tommy Robredo takes on Sergiy Stakhovsky split their only two meetings–both in 2010, and both matches on hardcourts.  It could go either way.