Flushing Meadows, NY (My Sportsbook) - World No. 1 Roger Federer struggled in his second-round match against little-known Marcos Baghdatis, but pulled out a four-set win Wednesday. Former champion Lleyton Hewitt also was a winner as he posted an easy three-set win in first-round action at the U.S. Open.

The top-seeded Federer defeated Baghdatis 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1 at Ashe Stadium in a match that lasted just over two hours.

The silky-smooth Swiss had 35 winners and an unusually high 32 unforced errors in the match, while Baghdatis committed 50 mistakes and had 24 winners.

Federer has already won an amazing eight titles in 2004, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and a triumph on the hardcourts at Flushing Meadows would make him the first player to win three Grand Slam crowns in one year since Mats Wilander in 1988.

The 23-year-old Federer will meet either 31st-seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro or Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the third round.

Federer, who has never made it past the fourth round at the U.S. Open, broke Baghdatis eight times in the match while having his traditionally strong serve broken twice.

The fourth-seeded Hewitt humbled veteran South African Wayne Ferreira 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in Ferreira's last match on the ATP circuit.

Hewitt, who captured the U.S. Open in 2001 and was the Wimbledon champion in 2002, has won 11 straight and 16 of his last 17 matches on the tour, including a runner-up finish to Andre Agassi in Cincinnati last month and back-to-back hardcourt titles over the past two weeks.

The former world No. 1 Hewitt, who boasts a stellar 24-4 lifetime record at the U.S. Open, will meet nifty Moroccan Hicham Arazi in the round of 64.

The 32-year-old Ferreira, who will turn 33 on September 15, will play some Davis Cup tennis for South Africa later this month before hanging up his racquet for good. He's played in a record 56 straight Grand Slam events, dating back to 1991, and has won 15 titles, while piling up just under $10 million in prize money.

Ferreira is just 13-16 this season.

American Todd Martin announced his retirement here on Monday night.

World No. 353 Dane Kristian Pless ousted 20th-seeded Brazilian Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). The popular Guga, a former world No. 1 and three-time French Open champion, has not reached a quarterfinal since the French Open in early June and has lost his last three matches, including an opening-round loss against Chilean Nicolas Massu at last month's Olympic Games.

Promising Swede Robin Soderling dismissed Olympic bronze medalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (4-7), 6-1. The 14th-seeded Gonzalez captured singles bronze in Athens and paired with his countryman Massu to claim doubles gold at last month's Summer Games.

In other seeded action, eighth-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian defeated Dutchman Dennis van Scheppingen 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; No. 12 Sebastien Grosjean topped fellow Frenchman Olivier Patience 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-1; No. 23 American Vincent Spadea overcame Peru's Luis Horna 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; and No. 30 Spaniard Feliciano Lopez leveled Frenchman Arnaud Di Pasquale 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-2. Horna was last week's TD Waterhouse Cup runner-up to Hewitt on Long Island.

Two other mild upsets occurred when Brazilian Ricardo Mello ousted 17th-seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 2-6, 6-2 and Czech Tomas Berdych upended 32nd-seeded Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 on the grounds of the USTA National Tennis Center. Berdych shocked world No. 1 Roger Federer in Athens last month.

Other first-round wins came for German Tommy Haas, Finn Tuomas Ketola, the aforementioned Arazi, German Philipp Kohlschreiber, Slovakian Karol Beck, Russian Mikhail Youzhny, Austrian Jurgen Melzer, Spaniard David Sanchez and Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who got past oft-injured Aussie Mark Philippoussis 1-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 4-1, as the 1998 U.S. Open finalist Philippoussis retired in the fifth set here on Day 3.

The veteran Haas rallied for a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over Italian Davide Sanguinetti.