U.S. Open: Serena Williams, no smiles, 22 winners, easy victory

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Serena Williams, a three-time U.S. Open champion playing the tournament for the first time since she had left Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2009 after unleashing an obscenity-filled tirade against a lineswoman who called a foot fault that resulted in Williams losing a semifinal match to Kim Clijsters, took a decisive 6-1, 6-1 win over Serbian teenager Bojana Jovanovski Tuesday night.

It was the final first-round match of the women’s draw and Williams dominated from the start. She won 54 total points to 27 by Jovanovski and was ahead 3-0 within the first 10 minutes.

Williams is only seeded 28th because her ranking had dropped so low during her absence from tennis for nearly 12 months beginning in July of 2010 because of, first, a toe injury and then from a pulmonary embolism. But since her return to the pro circuit in an event just before Wimbledon, Williams has gone 17-2 and she is undefeated on hard courts this summer after losing in the first round on the grass at Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli.

In the second round Williams, 29, will play 183rd-ranked qualifier Michaella Krajicek and seems headed for a third-round meeting with fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who beat Johanna Larsson 6-1, 6-3 in Tuesday’s very first day match on Ashe Stadium.

MORE:

U.S. Open: Venus Williams wins first match since Wimbledon

U.S. Open: Carolina Wozniacki wins one, talks Rory McIlroy too

U.S. Open: Novak Djokovic wins easy opener; Donald Young too

-- Diane Pucin, reporting from New York