Normal service resumes

TENNIS: Catastrophic events a few miles across town may have altered the view of New York's skyline since the US Open was last staged here a year ago but, as the tournament got under way yesterday, it was almost business as usual.

Normal service resumed on court too, with the return of Lindsay Davenport to grand slam action. Davenport has missed most of this year after undergoing knee surgery in February and looked delighted to be back on the big stage, whipping through her first- round match against the lowly ranked Eva Dyrberg 6-2, 6-1 in 41 minutes.

"I've been waiting to play in a grand slam all year long," said Davenport. "It's been a long wait and I was just so excited to play. I feel really, really good to be honest. This is certainly the freshest I have been entering a US Open."

The hapless Dane might have expected a hint of nerves or at least some rustiness from Davenport; instead she got the ball welted past her at full pelt with the kind of relentlessness that made the American the World number one and brought her three grand slam titles, including this one.

After months of draconian rehabilitation, which for two months meant eight hours a day of stretching and bending her leg on a machine that might have been more at home in a dungeon, Davenport returned to tennis at the end of July and has played four events on the US hard-court circuit.

Her results - two semi-finals and two finals - suggest she prefers doing to watching, particularly if the latter involves seeing the Williams sisters pick up title after title in the face of scant opposition. She was mildly irritated on her return when several of her fellow professionals said they were happy to see her back so someone would now challenge the sisters' hegemony.

"A few players have said that and I was like, 'well you could have done it while I was gone'," said Davenport testily. "I don't look at it like I'm the only one that has to do it. I think you have to worry about what you're doing."

Granted a special seeding of four despite the six-month lay-off, Davenport will have to go to the semi-finals before she would meet Serena Williams. She has a favourable draw and on yesterday's form few would bet against her getting there.

Fifth seed Jelena Dokic powered her way into the second round, pummelling Germany's Greta Arn 6-2 6-2 in just 51 minutes. The Yugoslav showed no sign of the hamstring injury which caused her to retire from her semi-final against Jennifer Capriati in Montreal earlier this month.

She will next face Elena Bovina after the Russian beat left-handed touch specialist Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina in two tiebreak sets.

Tim Henman's troublesome shoulder is showing signs of recovery but time is running out before his first-round match and he is still short of full fitness.

Yesterday he practised for longer than he has done since the shoulder first became inflamed three weeks ago and he has spent yet more time on the treatment table in the experienced hands of the ATP trainer Bill Norris.

"He's getting a lot better each day," said Norris. "He's not 100 per cent but he's getting there. We've been using a lot of physical therapy, a lot of electrical therapy and lot of massage and he's really responded well to it."

Even Norris admitted, though, hitting full pelt for up to five sets can take a terrible toll on the body and neither he nor Henman knows how long the shoulder will last once he starts playing matches.

"That's really an indeterminable thing," Norris said. "You never know what's going to happen with each little movement out there. Right now after practice and in the treatment room he's responding well but it's a day-by-day thing."