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The men's singles form book continued to be strictly respected at the US Open on day two with fourth seed Novak Djokovic and seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both cruising into the second round.

There were straight-sets wins too for 10th seed Fernando Verdasco , 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez and for 17th seed Thomas Berdych as most of the day's drama was being played out in the women's tournament.

The Serb, runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2007, was on top of his game as he beat the Croat for the fourth time in their five meetings.

Early breaks in each of the first two sets put Djokovic in charge and he broke once more in the eighth game of the third to clinch a comfortable victory.

Djokovic will next play Carsten Ball of Australia, who advanced past fellow-qualifier Juan Pablo Brzezicki of Argentina.

The 2008 Australian Open champion revealed afterward that he had reached agreement with retired American player Todd Martin to join his coaching team for Flushing Meadows.

Tsonga was even more expedient, defeating American wild card Chase Buchanan 6-0 6-2 6-1 in a mismatch out on the Grandstand Court.

The 24-year-old from Le Mans failed to get past the third round in his two previous appearances at Flushing Meadows, but he won the boy's title here in 2003 and he is the only player to defeat Roger Federer since May.

That came in the quarter-finals at the Montreal Masters, where he remarkably won from 1-5 down in the deciding set.

The Frenchman, runner-up to Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open, wrapped up the first set in just 23 minutes and it was the second game of the set before Buchanan opened his account by holding serve.

That was but a brief respite for the home player though as Tsonga powered away again losing just two more games as he went through in 78 minutes.

Tsonga will next play Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-5 7-6 (6) 6-4 with a quarter-final against Rafael Nadal a possibility if the seeding goes to plan.

Spain's Verdasco served up 12 aces and hit 36 winners on the way to a 7-5 6-4 7-5 win over Benjamin Becker of Germany, while Berdych of the Czech Republic, seeded 17, saw off Wayne Odesnik of the United States 7-5 6-4 6-4.

Gonzalez, whose best showing at the US Open was a quarter-final appearance in 2002, saw off Nicolas Massu 6-3 6-3 6-3 in an all-Chilean clash.

There were only two slight diversions from the script.

Veteran Ecudoran Nicolas Lapentti upset Federer's Swiss doubles parter and close friend Stanislas Wawrinka, the 19th seed, 4-6 3-6 7-6 (6) 7-6 (3) 6-3.

And American qualifier Jesse Witten, a former collegiate standout, stunned 29th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev 6-4 6-0 6-2.

The 26-year-old from Florida is more accustomed to playing on the secondary Challenger Tour and he was given little chance of upsetting Andreev who, in last year's fourth round, became just the second player to take Federer to five sets in the course of his 35-match unbeaten streak at Flushing Meadows.

But Witten took command from the start against the visibly out-of-sorts Russian and he kept the pressure on throughout.

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AFP