And longer than he did, too.
The 276th-ranked Witten earned the first tour-level victory of his career Tuesday at Flushing Meadows, upsetting No. 29-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.
Witten is originally from Naples, Fla., and he played college tennis at Kentucky, reaching the NCAA singles championship match in 2002. He's struggled at times as a pro, even considering moving on to another career not long ago, but he stuck with it - and when he plays in important tournaments, he can count on a rooting section.
"Whenever I get to a big show, they're definitely there. They're always supporting me," Witten said of his college buddies.
He packed about five people into his room in New York this week - "Don't tell the hotel," he said with a smile - and now that Witten has a Grand Slam match victory to his credit, their stay in the Big Apple has been extended.
As Witten prepared to face Andreev, he said, "everybody seemed to be my coach the last few days."
One particular person provided some advice that stood out, though.
"I hit with John McEnroe the other day, and he was really being helpful," Witten said. "He was trying to give me pointers."
They worked, apparently.
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LADIES FIRST: Wednesday's evening session in Arthur Ashe Stadium features a bit of a scheduling quirk: A men's singles match will precede a women's singles match, the first time the U.S. Open has done that in more than 20 years.
The announcement of that order of play - Roger Federer will play Simon Greul, followed by Serena Williams against Melinda Czink - came after Andy Roddick's match was the last on Monday's schedule and didn't finish until 12:45 a.m.
Because of an opening-night ceremony featuring Andre Agassi, followed by a victory by Venus Williams that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours, Roddick was forced to wait until after 11 p.m. to get on court.
"We don't believe that this issue had ever been voiced as loudly by the men until this year," tournament spokesman Chris Widmaier said. "So we felt we were being receptive to reasonable requests."
As for whether the flip-flopping of men's and women's night matches will happen again this year, Widmaier said: "I would expect that we would see it more than once."
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AT YOUR SERVICE: Using an abbreviated service motion isn't the ideal way to try to win matches at the U.S. Open, especially when it leads to 16 double-faults in the first round.
Still, 23rd-seeded Sabine Lisicki is just relieved to be playing in the tournament.
The 19-year-old German hadn't competed since retiring in the third round of the Los Angeles hard-court tournament Aug. 6 because her right shoulder hurt when she served. She didn't return to practice until a week before Tuesday's first-round match - and didn't try to serve for another two days.
Lisicki needed 2 hours, 21 minutes to beat 38th-ranked Aravane Rezai 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-1.
"It's really tough. I've served my whole life with one service motion, and I just have to change it," Lisicki said. "But I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to win."
Lisicki made a total of 52 unforced errors Tuesday as she shook off the rust and adjusted to the temporary change to her service motion. Considering her doctor wasn't sure she'd recover in time for the U.S. Open, she wasn't complaining.
Before the injury, Lisicki won her first WTA Tour title in Charleston in April, and at Wimbledon, she beat three seeded players to advance to the quarterfinals before falling to No. 1 Dinara Safina.
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FLIP A COIN: Entering last year's U.S. Open, Julie Coin was considering quitting tennis at the end of 2008. Then came the biggest victory of the Frenchwoman's career: She stunned top-seeded Ana Ivanovic in the second round at Flushing Meadows.
Coin was ranked 188th at the time; now she's up to a career-high 60th.
"It's like now I don't even think about when I'm going to stop," Coin said Tuesday. "I'm just enjoying every day when I'm playing."
The 26-year-old Coin beat qualifier Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of this year's U.S. Open. In 2008, Coin was the one who was a qualifier.
She also reached the second round at the Australian Open and French Open this year.
"Now it's, like, when I'm playing, there's no limits," Coin said. "In my head I can beat anybody. That's really different. Before when I was going on the court and somebody was better than I was, I was like, 'OK, I'm going to try to do my best.' Now I'm just going on the court to win."
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AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen contributed to this report.
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