US OPEN
Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Date: 31 August - 13 September
BBC coverage: Live text commentaries on the website from 1600 BST each day, regular updates on 5 live, full commentary on 5 live sports extra in week two, both finals on 5 live, tennis special on 5 live (3 September, 2000-2100 BST)
**Former world number one Kim Clijsters marked her Grand Slam return with a 6-1 6-1 thumping of Ukraine’s Viktoriya Kutusova in round one of the US Open.**Clijsters, 26, retired in 2007 and is making her first appearance in New York since winning the 2005 title.
The Belgian dominated Kutusova from the outset and, with five breaks of serve, stormed through in 54 minutes to meet Marion Bartoli or Rossana De Los Rios.
Defending champion Serena Williams and sister Venus also play on Monday.
Elsewhere, eighth seed Victoria Azarenka made light work of Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru to progress.
Azarenka has been tipped by many as an outsider for the title and the Belarusian won 6-1 6-1 to set up a second round meeting with Poland’s Marta Domachowska or Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the number 12 seed from Poland, saw off Patricia Mayr 6-1 6-2 and she will now play **Maria Kirilenko **after the unseeded Russian beat Mariya Koryttseva 6-2 6-1.
Another comfortable victor was Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, the 26th seed easing to 6-1 6-2 win against Yvonne Meusburger.
606: DEBATE
“Lovely to see Kim back and playing so well!”
yummymummyfridays
Clijsters, playing in just her third tournament after a two-year break during which she got married and had her first child, produced a devastating display of movement, timing and power to destroy Kutusova.
The Belgian has dropped to 9999 in the ranking and gained entry to Flushing Meadows via a wildcard, but looked as though she had never been away.
She seemed no less dominant than in her last US Open appearance - a 6-3 6-1 victory over Mary Pierce in the 2005 final - and will be confident of overcoming Bartoli or De Los Rios.
Kutuzova, the 2003 junior US Open runner-up, could not cope with Clijsters’ booming groundstrokes during a 27-minute opening set in which she held to love and then broke to 15 to take a 2-0 lead.
World number 79 Kutusova engineered a break point in game three but Clijsters held and then broke again in game four when her opponent double faulted.
Both players held serve before Clijsters sealed the first set, kicking a serve out wide before coming in to dispatch a forehand winner into open court.
Kutusova’s struggles on serve continued at the start of the second set and she was broken at the fifth time of asking in game one.
Having seemingly ironed out the issues that have been apparent on her serve since returning to the tour in Cincinnati, Clijsters swiftly moved into a 5-1 lead and wrapped up the match with a break to love when Kutusova netted.
“It was nice to come out here on centre court (Arthur Ashe Stadium) and open the tournament, as I didn’t get to do so as defending champion a few years ago,” said Clijsters.
"I’m glad I won in two sets without wasting too much energy. I had a few butterflies, more than I normally do because it was centre court and my first match back at a Grand Slam.
“My serve hasn’t been going the way I wanted it to but today it was really good.”