Tennis: Top seed Justine Henin made short work of her opening match at the US Open at Flushing Meadows.
Henin, who was beaten in last year's women's singles final by Maria Sharapova, needed just 62 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to defeat German qualifier Julia Goerges 6-0 6-3.
Despite the scoreline it was a far from fluent performance from the French Open champion with the Belgian managing only a 445 first service rate and committing seven double faults.
But when Henin did make her first serves, she was difficult to contain and Goerges folded with 32 unforced errors.
Preceding Henin on Ashe, third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was taken to a tiebreak in a 52-minute second set before overcoming Slovakia's Jamila Gajdosova 6-2 7-6 (7-2).
After her victory the 2006 semi-finalist admitted to first-day nerves but said she was glad to have been tested early in the tournament.
"Today I was really nervous, for some reason," Jankovic said. "First round of the tournament, it's always difficult, doesn't matter if it's a grand slam or just a regular tournament.
"I was just feeling a little bit not that comfortable. I wasn't playing well, was struggling out there. But, you know, 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."
On the Grandstand Court number 10 seed Marion Bartoli of France cruised into the second round with a 6-1 6-1 victory over American wild card Alexa Glatch.
Also through on the opening morning were 12th seed Dinara Safina of Russia, with a 6-2 6-3 win over Colombian Catalina Castano, while another Russian, 27th seed Vera Zvonareva, survived a second-set wobble to defeat compatriot Alina Jidkova 6-0 6-7 (5-7) 6-0.
Number 28 seed Ai Sugiyama was another seed to ease into the second round, beating Slovenian qualifier Andreja Klepac 6-3 6-1.