SECOND seed Monica Seles made an emotional return to the centre court yesterday almost four years after she lost to her great rival Steffi Graf in the 1992 final.
It was a shakey start for the joint world number one with Ann Grossman providing able opposition, but the outcome was never seriously in any doubt and it was Seles who prolonged matters some what with a few erratic strokes that she subsequently put down to nervousness.
"It's like before you have to go out and make a speech, or something. That is the way I felt today. I couldn't feel my hands were moving. Then when I lost the game (the second of the second set) I told myself to re-focus, but I just couldn't get the sort of focus that I wanted.
Despite some difficulties with her concentration Seles dominated her opponent from the back of the court. Grossman held her service to love in the second game of opening set but after that only fared well when the Australian Open champion produced one her brief successions of unforced errors.
Seles took the set 6-1 after only 24 minutes and the pattern barely changed in the second with the second favourite moving to match point at 5-2 thanks to a marvellous forehand pass. She clinched victory moments later with an ace. Seles faces Katarina Studenikova of Slovakia, ranked 59 in the world, in the second round. She is scheduled to play world number three Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the semi-finals.
In the other half of the draw, meanwhile, where top seed Graf makes her first appearance this afternoon against Ludmila Richterova of the Czech Republic, Conchita Martinez demolished Italy's Silvia Farina without even going close to dropping a game.
The Italian could manage just five points against the world number three at the top of her game and Martinez's reward is a place in the second round where she will meet America's Lisa Raymond.
There were no particular surprises elsewhere with Magdalena Maleeva, Mary Pierce and Kimiko Date all making it safely through, although Britain's Sam Smith did briefly trouble 15th seed Irina Spirlea of Romania before she ran out of steam losing 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Date beat Fed Cup teammate Kyoko Nagatsuka in straight sets 6-0, 6-3 despite arriving on court with her left calf heavily strapped.
Fourteenth seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa was also in a hurry and dropped only two games in her 6-1, 6-1 victory over Elena Wagner of Germany.
Pierce did something she doesn't often do these days when she notched up a victory. After a bitterly disappointing season and early elimination in Paris, she came safely through her first test on her least preferred surface by beating Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in straight sets.
