Venus begins with Bang

Williams led the second set 5-0 before squandering two service breaks, then broke back and held to finish off her 31st-ranked foe. “I feel really confident,” Williams said. “Even when I’m playing badly, I feel like I’m going to win the match. It’s a good feeling to have, when you can play with confidence and play well on the big points.”

Sampras subdued stubborn Czech Martin Damm 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 6-4 while Agassi ousted US college champion Alex Kim 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in 89 minutes and Hingis beat 101st-ranked Russian Alina Jidkova 6-3, 6-1 on a day when some stars struggled.

Fourth seed Sampras, who won his record 13th Slam title last month at Wimbledon, was extended for two hours and 22 minutes by the 69th-rated Damm, who did not have a break point until the third set. “In the first couple sets we were both playing at a very high level,” said Sampras. “He was serving huge and it was tough to break him. I felt pretty good out there.

“The first match is never easy to get through. I felt pretty comfortable from the first point on. It was a tough win, one I hope I can build on to get through.”

The victory was the first by Sampras here since 1998 after he missed last year with a back injury. Next up for the four-time US Open winner will be 27th-ranked fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill.

Australian Open champion Agassi made an impressive start in defence of his Flushing Meadows crown, serving eight aces and showing no signs of back pain from an auto accident last month that limited his preparation for the Open. “I was in control of the match early in each set,” Agassi said. “My shots are there but there’s no question as the tournamernt goes on I’m going to have to pick up my focus and concentration. It has a tendency to wander because I haven’t had the number of matches. But I like the way I’m striking the ball.”

The 30-year-old American booked a second-round date with 37th-ranked Arnaud Clement of France. Agassi beat Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 here in last year’s fourth round and 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-0 in round two at last year’s French Open.

Swiss 19-year-old Hingis, a 1997 winner here and US Open runner-up the past two years, needed only 56 minutes to advance. “As the match went on I felt more and more confident,” Hingis said. “At the beginning I didn’t know her. Once I started reading her game, it was much easier.”

Hingis, who has also won three Australian Open titles and the 1997 Wimbledon women’s crown, squandered two match points in the sixth game and surrendered a break with a wide forehand, but won when Jidkova was wide with a backhand. “Venus has won four in a row,” Hingis said. “Maybe she is the one who is favored now. But I’m playing pretty well.”

Australian Open runner-up and 1999 US Open semi-finalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov, struggled past 116th-ranked Bulgarian Orlin Stanoytchev 6-7 (5/7), 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. The Russian fifth seed rose to 6-0 in first-round matches here. Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, the ninth seed, needed two hours and 58 minutes to beat Sweden’s 43rd-ranked Andreas Vinciguerra 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 in a battle of 19-year-olds.

Hewitt lost the first four games but rallied with 17 aces. “It was probably one of the best hard-fought wins I’ve won,” Hewitt said. “They are the nice ones to get through at Grand Slams. It was one of my best wins. I didn’t play my best tennis but I got through it.”

Two winners rallied after a rain delay of one hour and 45 minutes. French ninth seed Nathalie Tauziat beat Slovakian qualifier Ludmila Cervanova 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and eighth seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain escaped South Africa’s Joanette Kruger 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).

Sixth seed Monica Seles, a two-time US Open champion, beat fellow American Tracy Almeda-Singian 6-0, 6-2 in 50 minutes. “I was pretty confident,” Seles said. “I thought if I stayed focused out there I should be OK.”

Britain’s Tim Henman was the first men’s seed to reach the second round. The 11th seed ousted Spain’s 36th-ranked Fernando Vicente 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes. Henman avenged a third-round French Open loss to Vicente this year and exorcized the demons of a first-round ouster on the same Louis Armstrong court last year at the hands of Argentina’s Guillermo Canas.

“My game is at a different level now,” Henman said. “There’s more consistency with my serving, a little bit better understanding of the way I can maintain levels at a high standard.”