NEW YORK: World number one Iga Swiatek launched her US Open title defence with a ruthless 6-0, 6-1 win over Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in the first round on Monday as the final major championship of the season got underway.

Swiatek, whose grip on top spot is under threat from Aryna Sabalenka in New York, needed just 58 minutes to dispose of the 86th-ranked Peterson.

The Pole, bidding for her fifth Grand Slam title, goes on to face Daria Saville of Australia in round two. She is now 18-1 in first-round matches at majors.

The season’s last Grand Slam began with some of the biggest names in tennis — about a year after two even bigger names walked away from the sport.

No one carries quite the star power of Serena Williams, whose last event was the 2022 US Open, or Roger Federer, who announced his retirement shortly afterward.

It is not often Swiatek is the opening act but she kicked off centre court action against Peterson in front of a sparse sleepy morning audience.

Swiatek said that her tank was “pretty empty” after losing in the Montreal and Cincinnati semi-finals earlier this month but showed no lack of vigour as she opened her campaign with an ace and blazed through the first set.

The Polish player showed only brief signs of vulnerability early in the second set, as she began to accrue more unforced errors and had to claw her way back from triple break point in the first game.

But she reminded the crowd at Flushing Meadows why she has been the world number one since April 2022 as she whacked across an unreturnable backhand shot to break Peterson to love in the fourth game.

Peterson, who was only produced two winners across the match, never regained her composure and Swiatek pumped her first after closing out the match with a scorching backhand down the line.

Play began under cloudy skies, with the temperature hovering around 23 degree Celsius (73.4 degrees Fahrenheit), and 10th seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic became the first player into the second round after completing a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Australia’s Storm Hunter in 1hr 5mins.

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka downed Fiona Ferro of France 6-1, 6-2 for her 15th first-round win at Flushing Meadows. Azarenka is a three-time finalist at the U.S. Open, last reaching the final in 2020, where she was beaten by Naomi Osaka.

But Spain’s Rebeka Masarova ousted Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-4.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023