Serena Williams follows familiar pattern in U.S. Open victory

Serena Williams did her locomotive routine again in the second round of the U.S. Open here Wednesday, and eventually completed two-sevenths of her Grand Slam quest.

The No. 1 Williams, as she often does, chug-chugged at the start, fell behind, 4-2 in the first set, to an opponent who had an infinitesimal chance of winning, and then shoveled on the coal in a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory. Her victim was Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, who had never beaten a top-10 player and entered the U.S. Open ranked No. 110.

“Today, I just said one point at a time,” Williams said. “When I get down, I tend to get really relaxed and I start to play better.

“I’ve always made some legendary comebacks since 1998, when it first started. So that’s just kind of been my MO for my whole career.”

Williams is not only two rounds closer to her eventual goal, but she also is within two rounds of facing perhaps her biggest challenge to that, her sister Venus. Venus played the first match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court at night and got past another U.S. player, Irina Falconi, No. 73. Venus Williams is seeded 23rd and won, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2.

The current crop of U.S. women players, besides Serena and Venus, continued to make good strides.

Madison Keys, No. 19, beat 100th-ranked Czech Republic player, Tereza Smitkova, 6-1, 6-2. Madison Brengle beat another U.S. woman, No. 121 Anna Tatishvili, 6-3, 6-2.

And in a feisty match of two more U.S. women — that featured one of the better racket-smashing efforts in years by CoCo Vandeweghe — Bethanie Mattek-Sands won, 6-2, 6-1. Perhaps Vandeweghe’s frustration was increased by the statistics: She came in ranked 45th, and Mattek-Sands 101.

Mattek-Sands will be Serena Williams’ third-round opponent.

Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, also in Serena Williams’ half of the draw and the most recent player to beat her (at Toronto), was pushed before winning her second-rounder. She beat Misaki Doi of Japan, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, who had a sensational season in 2014, with three semifinals and a final, but has now slipped to No. 25, and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who once got to No. 2 in the world, both advanced.

The men’s side was fairly cut and dried.

Rafael Nadal, now No. 8 but still just an adjustment here or there from being back with the big boys at the end of tournaments, struggled a bit through a first set, then wore down Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 7-5.

Afterward, Nadal was clear about his struggles. Also, about his growing impatience with being asked about it.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Seems like I’m No. 200 in every press conference. I am not so bad. After I arrive here with the victory, I come back to the locker room saying how bad I am. Every day.”

In a good position among the men is defending champion Marin Cilic of Croatia, who has flown along smoothly under the radar with a No. 9 seeding and defeated Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Same thing for No. 7 David Ferrer of Spain, who defeated Filip Krajinovic of Serbia, 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (4).

In men’s doubles, defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan lost to fellow Americans Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3, and will go a year without winning a Grand Slam title for the first time in a decade.

bill.dwyre@LATimes.com

Twitter: @DwyreLATimes