Venus advances but flinches after awkward landing

Venus Williams danced on Arthur Ashe Stadium court last night after she defeated Roberta Vinci in her opening match of the 2010 Open.

Minutes after that predictable first-round victory, 6-4, 6-1, Williams kept beat with the music as she hit celebratory balls into the stands. All seemed right with her world. "When music starts playing, I tend to start dancing," Williams said.

Yet what about that point in the second set when, after hitting a flying swing volley, she landed awkwardly on her left knee? Could that flinch be foreboding, an indication of problems in more difficult matches to come? In a television interview immediately after the match, Williams would say little other than to admit that her knee hurt when she landed on it.

"Thankfully [Vinci] did most of the running," Williams said. "Adrenaline helps a lot."

Williams hadn't played a single set of competitive tennis since she lost in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Continually vague about the situation, she cited a knee or kneecap injury for her absence during the summer hard court season, which happens to be the most difficult season on the tennis body. Her hitting partner, David Witt, told ESPN's Pam Shriver last night that Williams had started to practice with intensity within the last two weeks and it never got to the point of playing a full match or going all out.

What looked like a walkover in the first set turned out to be a decent test for Williams. She won the first three games, but Vinci started to hold her serve and Williams was broken in the seventh game. Vinci needed to use guile, by the tennis bag full, hitting soft slice backhands and trying to mix them up with some angled forehands. Williams, always trying to ramp up the pace with power, started to make errors and started to let Vinci into the match.

Vinci got the match to even at 4-4 on her serve, then Williams started to get more balls in play and broke Vinci in the 10th game to take the first set. The second set then became a formality with Williams' exceptional power ultimately proving too much for the Italian to cope with.

Painful win for Ivanovic. Ana Ivanovic, another player on the walking wounded list, scored a formidable victory, for her, at least. Playing on painkillers because of a bad ankle, she beat Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3, 6-2. Ivanovic's mind has been as fragile as her body over the last two years, but last night's match was a decent starting point.

"Still do take painkillers," Ivanovic said. "Despite that I did have pain. Yesterday and today was the first days I managed to practice and play without the pain, so I'm happy it all came together."

She hopes, too, that her hard work during the summer season is bringing all of her game together. "It was the little bits and pieces missing in the most important moments," she said of early round losses at Stanford and San Diego, plus an earlier first-round exit at Wimbledon.

"A few victories at Cincinnati did help my confidence. Maybe that's something I needed, you know, to be more relaxed and for things to come together. But one way or another, I'm just happy it's happening."