NEW YORK, Aug 26: Fourth seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States advanced to the second round of the US Open in just 41 minutes with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Denmark’s Eva Dyrberg Monday.

This is only the fifth event of the year for 26-year-old Davenport, who underwent right kneee surgery in January. She lost in the finals of her past two US Open tune-up events and in the semifinals of two prior hardcourt events.

Up next for the three-time Grand Slam singles champion and 1996 Olympic winner will be either Dutch foe Miriam Oremans or Hungary’s Petra Mandula.

Earlier eighth seed Justine Henin shruged aside her recent indifferent form to thrash American Samantha Reeves 6-1 6-2 to join Davenport in the second round.

The Belgian showed little signs of the finger fracture that hampered her build-up to the year’s final grand slam event and gave the 23-year-old Reeves the run around on a sun-baked Arthur Ashe Court.

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

Results (x denotes seed):

Women

Justine Henin (Bel x8) bt Samantha Reeves (USA) 6-1, 6-2; Elena Dementieva (Rus x12) bt Saori Obata (Jpn) 6-2, 6-4; Janette Husarova (Svk) bt Maria Geznenge (Bul) 6-0, 7-5; Bea Bielek (USA) bt Renata Voracova (Cze) 6-4, 6-4; Denisa Chladkova (Cze) br Meilen Tu (USA) 6-0, 6-4; Lindsay Davenport (USA) bt Eva Dyrberg (Denmark) 6-2, 6-1.—Reuters/AFP