Serena rallies to beat McNally, 17, in U.S. Open

Serena Williams, shown at Indian Wells in March, defeated Catherine McNally
5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in the second round of the U.S. Open. Photo by Harjanto Sumali

   Serena Williams won the first of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles 20 years ago in the U.S. Open.
   That was two years before Catherine McNally was born.
   The eighth-seeded Williams, a 37-year-old part-time resident of Silicon Valley, beat McNally, a 17-year-old wild card from Cincinnati, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 Wednesday night in the second round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Only 10 matches, all in covered Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, were completed because of rain. Sunny weather with highs of 82 degrees (27.8 Celsius) and 85 (29.4) is forecast for today and Friday, respectively.
   McNally, ranked No. 121, showed promise and poise in the late match in 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest tennis facility in the world.
   Williams, who's still trying to equal Margaret Court's record of 24 major singles crowns, will meet either 29th-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei, 33, of Chinese Taipei or Karolina Muchova, 23, of the Czech Republic.
   Hseih stunned top-ranked Simona Halep in the second round at Wimbledon last year, and Muchova reached the quarterfinals in her main-draw debut there last month.
   Seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori, the U.S. Open runner-up to Marin Cilic five years ago, outplayed left-hander Bradley Klahn, a 29-year-old Stanford graduate, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
    Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who won his third U.S. Open singles title last year, overcame a left-shoulder injury to defeat Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
   Third seed and five-time champion Roger Federer, 38, beat Damir Dzumhur, a quarterfinalist in the $81,240 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger as the top seed last month, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
   Also, German left-hander Dominic Koepfer, the runner-up to Steve Johnson in Aptos, defeated 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Reilly Opelka, a 22-year-old American, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (2).