By Charles Bricker

Catching up on Day 3 and looking forward to the rest of the week:

* What I wanted to see from Rafa Nadal in his opening match, against Richard "Cocaine Kiss" Gasquet, was rhythm and improved serving. There was never any question about the fitness of his knees. Rafa delivered. What he did not show with any consistency in the seven matches he played at Montreal and Cincinnati was very much in evidence in this straight-set win. He was hitting his running shots with beautiful rhythm and balance and he really stepped up his serve. He averaged 111 mph on his first, 88 on his second and never faced a break point. Seven aces, no double faults and 27 winners to 10 unforced errors. Those are excellent numbers.

* Curiously, the Associated Press filed a Nadal-Gasquet story in which it noted, "Everyone has been curious about the condition of Nadal's knees. . ." Huh? Everyone? Anyone who follows the game knew two weeks ago there was no question about Nadal's knees. The issues involved his rustiness on court. In the same story, the AP, oddly, reported that, Gasquet was testing Nadal's knees with "a drop shot deep in the third set." That's just silly. Gasquet had been on court for more than an hour with Nadal, and he knew, along with everyone else, that Nadal's fitness was 100 percent. Are these people watching the matches?

* Two players probably made their last U.S. Open appearance on Day 3 -- Marat Safin and Fabrice Santoro, both of whom have indicated retirement at the end of the season. I'll miss Fabrice a lot more than Safin, whose antic personality wore thin a few years ago. He's given us some great laughs, but stacked up alongside his "manana" attitude toward tennis, he won't be missed that much. Santoro, however, has never been anything but great fun and entertainment when he's been on the court.

* Two wild cards which the USTA exchanges with Australian and French tennis federations resulted in just two wins. Michael Llodra and Chris Guccione both went out in the second round.

* I just don't understand Venus Williams' big mystery with her left leg injury. "I don't talk about injuries," she continues to tell questioners who want to know the exact nature of the damage. It's not as if we can't see she has a knee problem. When she hurt the leg early in her opening round match, you could see the trainer working on the area around the kneecap and quad muscle group. For her second round match, she went on court heavily braced. No one is asking for a copy of the medical report and there's no reason why she can't simply announce, "Yeah, I've got a slight problem with my patellar tendon." Wow. Make a federal case out of this, Venus.

* This third-round match coming up is probably something of a dream for young Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, who has never played one of her heroes, Kim Clijsters.

* Gael Monfils had only 12 unforced errors in beating up on French compatriot Jeremy Chardy.

* Roger Federer was broken early in the third set vs. Simon Greul (pronounced "groil"), but you never had the sense he was in trouble. But Greul's super-aggressive game pushed the No. 1 seed, who won the last two sets by 7-5, 7-5.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com