TENNIS in DEPTH.

France’s Richard Gasquet produced a superb performance to send sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko crashing out of the US Open in the second round.

Gasquet, who won the junior title at Flushing Meadows in 2002, claimed his first grand slam win of the year in the first round after early exits in Australia and Paris and missing Wimbledon with a rib injury.

And the enigmatic 24-year-old carried on where he had left off against Germany’s Simon Greul, dismissing Davydenko by the same scoreline of 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Davydenko, who missed 11 weeks of the season after breaking his wrist in March, is the highest seed to fall in New York so far, joining seventh seed Tomas Berdych and ninth seed Andy Roddick in making an early exit.

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American teenager Beatrice Capra upset 18th-seeded Aravane Rezai of France 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 Thursday to reach the third round of the U.S. Open in her Grand Slam debut.

The 18-year-old Capra is the youngest player left in the women’s field and the lowest-ranked, at 371st. She is from Ellicott City, Md., and trains at the Evert Academy in Delray Beach, Fla.

This is the first tour-level, main-draw event of Capra’s career. She knocked off 95th-ranked Karolina Sprem in the opening round. Capra could face Maria Sharapova next.

Capra is even more of an outsider than Melanie Oudin was last year at the U.S. Open when, at age 17, Oudin beat Sharapova en route to the quarterfinals.

Rezai twice has reached the fourth round at major tournaments.

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Venus Williams was pushed all the way by aggressive Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in the second round of the US Open.

Williams, a two-time champion at Flushing Meadows, needed a tie-break to win an opening set containing no breaks of serve.

The American finally broke in the fourth game of the second set to take a 3-1 lead before going on to post a 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 victory.

Williams faces another qualifier in the third round after Mandy Minella, the world number 185 from Luxembourg, dispatched 32nd seed Tsvetana Pironkova for the loss of just four games.

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 Andy Roddick crashed out of the US Open after ranting at a line judge who called a foot fault against him.

Roddick was serving at 5-2 down in the third set of his second-round match with Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic when a line judge called the fault on what would have been an ace.

The ninth seed appeared to ask the female official if it was his right foot which caused the fault and was told it was, when in fact it was his left foot which touched the line.

“Not once in my career has my right foot gone in front of my left foot, never. That is unbelievable,” Roddick complained.

The 28-year-old’s tirade went on for some time, although he stopped short of the infamous foul-mouthed outburst by Serena Williams which occurred during last year’s semi-final with Kim Clijsters.

However, he did tell umpire Enrique Molina “I think you and I both know that’s ridiculous,” as he left the court to change his shorts after the fourth set.

Tipsarevic won that set 6-3 and went on to seal a 3-6 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7/4) victory to book his place in the third round.

Roddick admitted he had gone “too far” with his tirade, adding: “I wasn’t upset with the call, I just

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Ivan Ljubicic followed fellow seed Tomas Berdych out of the opening round of the US Open.

Croatian Ljubicic was beaten in four sets by 18-year-old American qualifier Ryan Harrison in searing heat.

“The weather was my biggest enemy today,” admitted 31-year-old Ljubicic.

“Throughout my career I struggled with the heat. I’m not really coping really well with that, and I tried all kind of different tactics to deal with it. I never find the right one.

“Today was no different. Then everything else just comes together. I was not returning well, serving well, and Ryan was on top of his game. When everything gets together, it was a pretty comfortable win for him.

“We saw some players struggling big time. There are comments saying it’s the same thing for everybody, but really it’s not. Somebody is struggling more than others, and I think it’s just not fun.

“I think people out there are coming to see good tennis, and on days like this it’s all about everything except tennis. It’s just trying to hang in there and hit some balls more on the court than the other guy or other girl,

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Former world number one Ana Ivanovic booked her place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time this year following an upset win over China’s Zheng Jie at the US Open.

The Serb brushed aside her 21st-seeded opponent 6-3 6-0 in less than an hour as she showed signs of the form that helped her reach the top of the women’s game.

Ivanovic, currently ranked 40 in the world, hit 22 winners in an unexpectedly dominant display in stiflingly hot conditions at Flushing Meadows.

The 22-year-old has struggled in the major tournaments in recent times having lost in the first round at Wimbledon earlier this year after second-round defeats at the Australian and French Opens.

She was also a first-round loser at the US Open last year, but now has the opportunity to match her best performance at Flushing Meadows, having reached the fourth round in 2007.

Ivanovic will next meet the winner of the all-French clash between 13th seed and former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli and Virginie Razzano.

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Victoria Azarenka today collapsed on court during her second-round match against Gisela Dulko at the US Open.

On another sweltering day in New York, with temperatures again expected to approach 100 degrees, Azarenka slumped to the ground while serving at 15-30 and 5-1 down on the Grandstand Court.

Medical staff rushed to treat the 21-year-old from Belarus, who was then taken off the court in a wheelchair.

Azarenka had appeared to be struggling as early as the third game of the match when she received treatment for an arm injury but also looked to be suffering from blurred vision.

Speaking about the incident, Dulko said: “After that you don’t think about tennis, you are just worried about your opponent.

“Now she has gone to the hospital so I guess it’s something serious and I hope she is feeling good soon.”

Asked about the conditions, Dulko added: “I’m used to this kind of weather but on the first day when I went to practice I was feeling dizzy as well.

“It’s hard to play in these conditions and today I am much better because I have been here a few days, but it’s tough.”

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