Davenport back in business in New York
The 1998 champion arrived with just a month of match practice behind her, after eight months sidelined by a serious knee injury, and she is ready to push her body to its limits to win another Grand Slam.
While the Williams sisters are inevitably favourites, and impossible to separate for many bookmakers, their fellow American Davenport is determined to be in the frame come the tail end of next week.
She mauled Danish qualifier Eva Dyrberg 6-2 6-1 on Arthur Ashe court, winning 88% of first-serve points and not even allowing a break point against her. The fourth seed was a finalist at New Haven on Saturday where she lost to Venus Williams.
Davenport has three career Grand Slam titles, the 1998 US, 1999 Wimbledon and 2000 Australian, but has not contested a Slam this season. She was knocked out by Serena Williams in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows last year, but has reached that stage at least in her last five appearances at the final Slam of the season.
Anne Kremer of Luxembourg was the subject of the first shock of the tournament.
The 19th seed was defeated by impressive young Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 17-year-old Kuznetsova won 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 on an outer court for her first-ever singles win at a Slam.
She made her debut at the Australian Open this spring when still 16, but failed to qualify for both the French Open and Wimbledon, and almost fell in qualifying last Friday when she was pushed to a tie-break in the deciding set against Madagascar's Dally Randriantefy.
Despite her high seeding, Kremer has never gone past the second round in New York.
Justine Henin, the Belgian eighth seed, struggled with her serve but still trounced Samantha Reeves as she was an early first-day winner at the US Open.
Her first-serve percentage was a miserable 46% and she served eight double faults, but last year's Wimbledon finalist still cantered through to the second round.
She won 6-1 6-2 in an hour and seven minutes.
The Russian Anastasia Myskina, who is ranked 15th, arrived at Flushing Meadows with her confidence sky-high.
She beat Martina Hingis in New Haven last Thursday, ending the former world number one's run there before losing to Lindsay Davenport in their semi-final.
But she looked to be in early trouble against Spaniard Marta Marrero in her opening match and dropped the opening set.
At 4-4 in the second, her position in the tournament looked at best unstable, but she rallied to take that set and raced through the decider to progress 4-6 6-4 6-0.
She next faces Czech Denisa Chladkova who secured the first victory of the tournament when she brushed aside American Meilen Tu.
Both players came into the match looking to get to the second round for the third time, but Chladkova was dominant from the early stages and won through 6-0 6-4.
In the men’s singles French Open champion Albert Costa beat Magnus Norman in four sets to make the second round.
The Spaniard was given a tough draw, with the Swedish former world number two his opponent.
But the injury-prone Swede, who spent much of 2000 in the top 10, was well below his best form and Costa won through 6-2 6-4 3-6 6-3 to prove himself a classy performer away from his favoured clay.
Roger Federer meanwhile came through a tricky match with Jiri Vanek in four sets. The out-of-form Swiss star looked to be heading for an easy win when he took the first two sets for the loss of four games.
But Vanek hit back by taking the third and made Federer fight hard before the Swiss wrapped up a 6-1 6-3 4-6 7-5 win in the fourth set.
Federer, who served eight aces and seven double faults in the match, will have to improve though if he is to mount a serious title challenge.
He next faces veteran Michael Chang, the 1996 runner-up. The American, now 30, squeezed past Spain's Francisco Clavet 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-3).
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