World No.1 Iga Swiatek got the defence of her US Open crown off to an ominous start, blasting Swede Rebecca Peterson 6-0 6-1, before turning the spotlight over to evening headliner Novak Djokovic.
The US Open also welcomes back fan-favourite and twice finalist Caroline Wozniacki, who retired in 2020 to raise a family and will face Russia's Tatiana Prozorova across the grounds on Louis Armstrong Court.
A return to competition has been predictably bumpy for the former world No.1 Dane, who lost in the second round at Montreal and in the first round at Cincinnati earlier this month in her first two tournaments back.
Swiatek isn't often the opening act, but the Pole was handed the thankless task of kicking off the year's final Grand Slam in front of a sparse sleepy morning audience.
Winner of three of the last six Grand Slams, not even the world's best women's player was able to inject excitement into a lifeless contest that was little more than a practice session for the Pole and mercifully completed in under 60 minutes.
"I feel like I could play proactively from the beginning and just didn't stop," said Swiatek, who next meets Australian Daria Saville, who schooled 17-year-old American wildcard Clervie Ngounoue 6-0 6-2.
"I'm just happy that this was such a nice first round, because first rounds are usually tricky. Also, I'm happy that I kind of had time to implement all of the stuff that I practiced on."
Prevented from playing in last year's US Open, due to being unvaccinated against COVID-19, Djokovic begins his quest to match Margaret Court's all-time record haul of 24 Grand Slams against Frenchman Alexandre Muller.
Coming off a win at the Cincinnati Open, Djokovic, 36, is expected to dispose of Muller in equally snappy fashion, with the 84th-ranked Frenchman never beating a top-10 opponent and making his main draw debut at Flushing Meadows.
If the Serb can reach the second round, he will return to world No.1 on September 11, bumping Spain's Carlos Alcaraz from the top spot.
Day One of the season's final Grand Slam produced a double Spanish surprise, with Roberto Carballes Baena and Rebeka Masarova pulling off upsets to claim their first wins over top-10 ranked opponents.
Carballes Baena dispatched men's fourth seed Holger Rune of Denmark 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2, while Masarova showed Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari the exit, 6-4 6-4.
A 2021 US Open semifinalist, the early exit capped a miserable Grand Slam campaign for Sakkari, who also suffered first-round losses at Wimbledon and French Open.
Norwegian fifth seed Casper Ruud, who lost to Carlos Alcaraz in last year's US Open, narrowly avoided a similar fate, battling past American qualifier Emilio Nava 7-6 (5) 3-6 6-4 7-6 (5).
Reuters
