Jankovic enjoys comfortable start

Aug 26 2008

Jelena Jankovic successfully began her quest for a first major championship while Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Lindsay Davenport also triumphed in the opening round of the US Open on Monday.

Jankovic, the world number two and second seed who has never reached a Grand Slam final, defeated American wildcard Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 6-1.

Jankovic took advantage of her 16-year-old opponent's 33 unforced errors to end the match in one hour on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

The 23-year-old Serbian will now meet Swede Sofia Arvidsson, who defeated Zi Yan 6-2 6-4.

Trying to go one step further after losing to the now-retired Justine Henin in the final last year, third seed Kuznetsova enjoyed a bright start on a cloudy day, coasting to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Shuai Zhang of China.

Kuznetsova, who beat Dementieva for the title in 2004, broke Zhang's serve four times and was able to march on despite committing 21 unforced errors.

The fifth-seeded Dementieva advanced with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan. Dementieva entered the Arthur Ashe Stadium brimming with confidence after winning the gold medal at the Olympics.

She did encounter some resistance from a virtually unknown opponent as the year's final major got under way. She fought off two set points in the second set at 4-5 down against the world number 78.

Davenport coasted into the second round with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.

Twelfth seed Marion Bartoli had no trouble in her first-round match, thrashing Galina Voskoboeva 6-2 6-3, while Fifteenth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland struggled but eventually reached the second round with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 triumph over Anastasia Pivovarova.