Davydenko eases through

New York - Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia opened his U.S. Open title campaign with a solid 6-4 6-1 6-3 victory over American Michael Russell on Monday.

The Russian, twice a semi-finalist in New York but still making his way back after a wrist injury this year, recovered from a slow start to cruise through in two hours, 21 minutes.

Russell had never won a match in five previous US Open tournaments but looked good as he broke Davydenko to lead 4-2.

But Davydenko won four straight games to take the opening set and then eased through the remaining two sets to set up a second-round meeting with Frenchman Richard Gasquet.