Published On:Thursday, September 02, 2010

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

D

espite a slow start, Bahamian tennis ace Mark Knowles got his 16th appearance at the ATP tour's Grand Slam finale off to a successful start with a come from behind win to advance.

Knowles and partner Mardy Fish of the United States recovered to take the three set win in the opening round of the U.S Open at Flushing Meadows, New York yesterday.

The Bahamian-American duo, the fifteenth ranked team in the draw, advanced with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 over the unranked Spanish team of Marc Lopez and Pere Riba on court seven.

Lopez, a 2005 Wimbledon singles quarter-finalist, and Pere Riba took the first set and opened the second with a two game lead before Knowles and Fish surged ahead.

With the victory, they will advance to play the combo of Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia in the second round.

The duo ousted the American pair of David Martin and Donald Young in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5.

The American duo Bob and Mike Bryan are the top seeds of the draw and with another win in round two, Knowles and Fish could be set for a collision course in round three.

Knowles' former partner Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia are the second ranked team in the draw, while another former partner Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Max Mirnyi of Belarus are ranked number four.

Both Knowles and Fish will now turn their attention to today's schedule where they will contest the mixed doubles and singles draw respectively.

Fish, coming off his runner-up position at his latest outing in Cincinnati, entered singles play as the 19th seed and defeated Jan Hajek.

He will face Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay today in round two in the opening match at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Mixed

Knowles and Anna-Lena Groenfeld of Germany, former Wimbledon mixed doubles champions, will face Nicole Gibbs and Sam Querrey, both of the United States, in the first round match on court 12.

Knowles and Bhupathi finished as runners-up last year in the tournament to Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India when they were defeated 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the final of the 2009 US Open men's doubles championship.

Knowles captured the 2004 US Open doubles title alongside Nestor with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Paes and David Rikl of the Czech Republic.

After a long, arduous season marred by injury, setbacks and disappointments, Knowles and his newest doubles partner Fish persevered and were able to hoist a trophy with their first title of the season last month.

Knowles and Fish outlasted Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington D C 4-6, 7-6(7), 10-7.

The pair last won a doubles title in 2009 at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, Tennessee.