Seeds flourish at Flushing Meadows

Her whirlwind victory followed Belgian eighth seed Henin’s 67-minute 6-1, 6-2 walloping of America’s Samantha Reeves.

Top seed Serena Williams headlines the action in an emotionally-charged evening session at Flushing Meadows later on Day One.

The World Number One faces American darling Corina Morariu.

Morariu, once the world’s top-ranked doubles player, is making her first Grand Slam appearance this year after undergoing treatment for leukaemia which kept her out of the game for more than a year.

On the men’s side, sixth seed Andre Agassi will wrap up late night action when he clashes with fellow American Robby Ginepri.

The top players all flexed their muscles in early opening action at the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year.

Henin shrugged aside her recent indifferent form to thrash Reeves, showing little sign of the finger fracture which hampered her build-up.

Aiming to progress beyond the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time, Henin’s magical backhand was in full flow as Reeves struggled to come up with the shots to put up any form of challenge.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy,” smiled the Belgian after the moderate workout on a sun-baked court.

“It is important to be fresh mentally and physically for the rest of the tournament.”

Davenport will certainly be fresh after her lopsided win.

“I feel really, really good to be honest and I was really wanting the tournament to start,” she said afterwards.

“I have been waiting to play a Grand Slam all year long.”

Champion here in 1998, Davenport is playing only her fifth tour event of 2002 having undergone right knee surgery in January. “This is certainly the freshest I have been entering a US Open,” she laughed. “I was really excited to get going.”

Other seeds to advance included 15th seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia who beat Spain’s Marta Marrero 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva who strolled past Japan’s Saori Obata 6-2, 6-4 and Tamarine Tanasugarn, 27th, of Thailand who beat Germany’s Barbara Rittner 6-4, 6-7, 6-2. (Reuters)