Third seed Novak Djokovic fought back from the brink to reach the second round of the US Open.

The 2008 Australian Open champion trailed two sets to one and was a break down in the fourth against fellow Serb and good friend Viktor Troicki but battled back for a 6-3 3-6 2-6 7-5 6-3 victory.

Troicki was left to rue missing out on a break point in the fourth set which would have given him a 4-1 lead with Djokovic looking out on his feet.

That seemed to galvanise the world number three into action and he immediately broke back to level at 3-3 and broke again in the 12th game to force a decider.

Djokovic, who had beaten Troicki in their previous four encounters, lost his serve at the start of the final set, but rattled off four games in a row to take a 4-1 lead.

Both players held their next two service games to leave Djokovic serving for the match at 5-3 only for Troicki to win the first two points.

However, Djokovic took four points in a row to win in three hours and 40 minutes and set up a clash with Philipp Petzschner.

“I have to give Viktor credit,” said Djokovic. “He played really well and served incredibly well. If I lost it would have been so deserved on his side. Only a couple of points turned the match around.”

Marcos Baghdatis became the biggest casualty in the opening round as he lost a topsy-turvy encounter with Arnaud Clement. Sixteenth seed Baghdatis, who had beaten Rafael Nadal in the build-up to the final Grand Slam of the year, lost the opening set 6-3 on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

However, the Cypriot roared back by taking the next two sets for the loss of just three games.

Clement, 32, did not win a match during the US Open series, but the Frenchman fought back to secure a 6-3 2-6 1-6 6-4 7-5 victory in a match lasting three hours and 27 minutes.

“What can I say? I was really heavy on court, I wasn’t feeling very fit,” admitted Baghdatis, who was a runner-up at the Australian Open in 2006 but has never been beyond the second round in New York.

“I couldn’t play aggressive. I was really defensive and Arnaud played a very good first set. I didn’t play very good tennis and he won the match.”

Ernests Gulbis also fell at the first hurdle as the 24th seed suffered a straight-sets defeat to Jeremy Chardy.

The Frenchman took just over two hours to earn a 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 victory against Latvian Gulbis, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on Monday.

Defeat for Gulbis meant the world number 26 did not reach the second round of any of his three Grand Slam appearances this year.

Elsewhere, big-hitting eighth seed Fernando Verdasco had to dig deep to win his match 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, over Fabio Fognini while tenth seed David Ferrer won his first round match against Alexander Dolgopolov in straight-sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Home crowd favourite James Blake also won his match in comfortable fashion after beating Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in his 10th US Open appearance.

Rounding up Day Two action on the men’s side was Rafael Nadal who overcame Teymuraz Gabashvili in three tight sets. The world number one player won 7-6, 7-6, 6-3.