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NEW YORK - World No 1 Justine Henin opened her bid for a second US Open tennis title by whipping German qualifier Julia Goerges 6-0 6-3 in just 62 minutes today.
Henin, a six-time Grand Slam champion and the 2003 champion here, landed only 44 per cent of
her first serves but was never broken in the contest.
"It was a great atmosphere even though I wasn't able to play by best tennis, especially in the first set," said Goerges, 18, making her Grand Slam debut.
There were no major upsets on the opening day of the final Grand Slam of the year, played on the hard courts under gloriously sunny skies at the National Tennis Centre.
Third seed Jelena Jankovic looked out of rhythm during a 6-2 7-6 triumph over Jarmila Gajdosova, of Slovakia.
"Today I was really nervous, for some reason," said Jankovic, a semifinalist in 2006.
"I was not that comfortable. I wasn't playing well, was struggling out there.
"But it's always good to have some competition in the first rounds, to feel that, so you kind of wake up so you're ready for the next ones."
Top seed and triple defending champion Roger Federer was playing American Scoville Jenkins while former champions Serena and Venus Williams were set to play their opening matches under the lights later today.
Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko advanced easily into the second round with a 6-4 6-0 6-1 drubbing of American wildcard Jesse Levine.
Davydenko, however, continued to be hounded by questions concerning a match this month in Poland when he retired midway through the contest against Martin Vassallo-Arguello.
British betting exchange company Betfair voided all bets on the match after they spotted an unusually large amount of money wagered on Vassallo-Arguello, even though the Argentine was ranked about 80 places lower at the time.
"I am in this position now where I'm a top player, (but) fans and everybody sees me as like a bad guy, who gambles," he said.
"For me it's pretty tough.
"It's like mentally you're tired. If you go to the internet, you read some press writing bad things and you're already nervous."
Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Ferrero became the first seeded casualty after he was beaten 6-3 6-4 6-4 by fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the first round.
The 21st seed, runner-up here in 2003, was outplayed throughout by Lopez, who will now play Russian Igor Andreev.
- REUTERS